Energetic moves?
Good and bad news came in around the UK energy situation.Â
Problems in the area are not going to go away. Here we have a selection: political, economic, local opinion and habitat impact.
uncompetitive supplies
Allan Asher, the chief executive of Energywatch, has told MPs that power companies have it too easy. There is next to no market competition.
It is indisputable that competition in a market of six major players is unlikely to be as fierce as it would be with 20. As a result, he said, the difference between them is “just a few pence a week”.
hot air
Villagers in part of south Leicestershire are protesting at proposals to build a wind farm. They would be equivalent to eleven 40-storey buildings.
Members of the protest group claim the plan will damage the environment.
nuclear expansion
The UK government confirmed in January that it was in the country’s long-term interest that nuclear power should play a role in providing Britain with clean, secure and affordable energy.
Although considered highly reliable, nuclear power has been seen as a high-cost option, compared with other methods of electricity generation. But a range of independent studies now show that full life-cycle costs are competitive with other sources. This competitiveness improves further when factors such as desirability of meeting policy objectives of cleaner, more secure power sources are taken into account.
The quantity of nuclear waste is extremely small when compared to overall national volumes of all toxic wastes
tide plans
A new model of the Severn estuary built in Cardiff University will be used to study the impact of tidal power plans, including a barrage.
A feasibility study by the Welsh Assembly Government and the UK Government into the Severn Barrage, which could produce about 5% of the UK’s electricity within 14 years, was announced in January.
Professor Roger Falconer, who led the team designing and building the model, said it would be used to double check computer simulations of the impact of a barrage or other tidal power proposals.
“It will help us make the right decision as to how we can minimise any adverse environmental impacts,” he said.
folding Array?
The world’s largest planned wind farm, the London Array offshore scheme is being developed by a consortium called London Array Limited. which aims to have up to 341 turbines some 20km (12 miles) generating 1,000 MW in the Thames Estuary, east of London. One of the three partners in the consortium, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, aims to withdraw, putting the entire scheme at risk.
Shell’s corporate advertising focuses on its green energy initiatives and said it was shifting its wind power focus to the United States because government incentives were more competitive.
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