Fourth largest industrial nation set to replace nuclear with renewable energy
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 June 2011 14.16 BST
German MPs have overwhelmingly approved plans to shut down the country's nuclear plants by 2022, putting Europe's biggest economy on the road to an ambitious build-up of renewable energy.
The lower house of parliament voted 513-79 for the shutdown plan drawn up by Angela Merkel's government after Japan's post-tsunami nuclear disaster. Most of the opposition voted in favour.
MPs sealed the shutdown of eight of the older reactors, which have been off the grid since March. Germany's remaining nine reactors will be shut down in stages by the end of 2022.
By 2020, Germany wants to double the share of energy stemming from water, wind, sun or biogas to at least 35%. Until this year, nuclear energy accounted for a little less than a quarter of Germany's power.
"Some people abroad ask: will Germany manage this? Can it be done? It is the first time that a major industrial country has declared itself ready to carry through this technological and economic revolution," the environment minister, Norbert Röttgen, told MPs.
"The message from today is this: the Germans are getting to work," he said. "This will be good for our country, because we all stand together. So let's get to work."
The government hasn't put a price tag on the plan to shift to renewable sources. "Of course it will cost something, but it won't overburden anyone," Röttgen said.
The vote completed a spectacular about-turn on nuclear energy by Merkel's centre-right coalition. Only last year, it had amended a previous centre-left government's plan to abandon nuclear power by the early 2020s and extended the life span of Germany's 17 reactors by an average of 12 years.
Merkel said the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant had prompted her to re-evaluate the risks of nuclear power.
Opposition leaders taunted the government over its U-turn, which Merkel initiated less than two weeks before two state elections in March.
"We are approving this out of full conviction, but you are doing it merely to preserve power," said Sigmar Gabriel, the head of the centre-left Social Democrats.
Renate Künast, the co-leader of the Greens' parliamentary group, said she didn't care why Merkel had changed course: "For me, it's enough of a historical irony that you now have to come close to what you fought for decades," she said.
"Now no one can deny that Germany wants an energy turnaround," added Künast. Her party has always opposed nuclear energy, which has been unpopular in Germany since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster sent radioactivity drifting over the country.
Still, she complained that the government's renewable energy target was unambitious, arguing that Germany should be aiming for a share of well over 40%.
"The world is watching us now, and we will have to do justice to that," Künast said. "That is the scale of this task: we must show that this works for the fourth biggest industrial country."
Parliament's upper house, which represents Germany's 16 states, is expected to endorse the plans next week, but much of the package does not formally require its approval.
Friday, 1 July 2011
'Electric highway' policy marks latest coalition U-turn
Network of charging points for electric cars would be 'underutilised' says report by Department for Transport
Juliette Jowit
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 June 2011 17.08 BST
Screengrab of Zap-Map showing UK charging point network for electric cars. Photograph: nextgreencar.com
The promised vision of a network of electric highways wired up for a fleet of battery-powered cars became the latest government pledge to fall victim to spending cuts.
A report published by theDepartment for Transport declared that widespread public charging points for electric vehicles would be "under-utilised and uneconomic", and said the nation should instead rely on recharging car and van batteries at home or at work.
The new policy contrasts with much more ambitious promises in the Conservative manifesto and the coalition government agreement for a "national network" of charging points, suggesting widespread public access to the chance to top up the battery, and was criticised by consumer and motoring groups.
The government said research showed the majority of electric vehicle owners would recharge their cars overnight where they lived. But campaigners countered that this bare statement undermined the importance of giving consumers confidence they would not be caught out with a flat battery and no way of getting home.
Consumer advice website Nextgreencar.com said they would be disappointed if the government reduced public support for battery charging points, especially after a recent survey for the UK's biggest electric recharging network, Elektromotive, found two-thirds of consumers said they would be more likely to buy a battery-powered car if there were more charging points along roadsides and in public car-parks.
The transport department said it was still committed to spending £30m to build 8,500 charge points in eight "pilot areas", including London and the north-east of England. This compares to hopes of eventually replacing most of the UK's fleet of 34m vehicles with electric or hybrid petrol and electric models, but a department spokesman said trials by the Technology Strategy Board supported their approach of relying on charging where people live and work, rather than a network of special locations such as petrol stations. "It's a change of mindset: you don't have to go to [the power], it's already there," said the spokesman.
Edmund King of the AA motoring group warned the government would have to increase support for charging points to fulfil the European Union transport white paper hope of taking all petrol and diesel cars off urban roads by the middle of this century.
"To even partially fulfil that aspiration a comprehensive EV charging network will be needed in every city," said King. "There is, of course, a role for the private sector, but the government needs to take a stronger lead in terms of infrastructure if electric vehicles are to take off."
The Conservative-Lib Dem government has already been criticised for dropping or weakening other environment commitments, including watering-down plans for a green investment bank and national programme of home insulation, reducing grants to support home renewable energy generation, and cutting spending on flood defences.
According to Nextgreencar's Zap-Map of the UK's electric charging points, there are currently about 1,000 public facilities.
In 2009 only 55 EVs were sold in the UK, but industry figures have predicted 2011 will be a "breakthrough" year for the technology, boosted by a slew of new models and government grants of up to £5,000 each to help buy battery-powered cars.
The Committee on Climate Change has calculated a need for at least 1.7m electric vehicles by 2020 if the UK is to remain on course to hit ambitious carbon-reduction targets.
Power from green sources surges – but so does coal consumption
• Renewables output up 27% year on year, coal up 7%
• Rising price of natural gas sees usage fall by 20%
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 June 2011 20.35 BST
Britain's green energy sector produced 27% more electricity in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year as the rapid expansion of offshore wind capacity started to bear fruit, official figures have revealed.
Renewables and nuclear both increased their low-carbon output – but the environmental benefits were undermined by power companies using 7% more coal.
The figures, published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), also showed the use of gas falling by 20% in the three months.
And there was a worrying picture for Britain's balance of payments, with domestic production of oil and gas from the North Sea falling heavily. Oil output was down 15.5% in the first quarter of 2011 on the same period in 2010, while imports of oil and oil products shot up fourfold, to 4m tonnes. Total indigenous production of natural gas fell in the first three months of 2011 by nearly 18%, but while gas exports were nearly 12.5% lower, imports were down 1.5% too.
The first quarter was strong for wind farms, but DECC statistics for 2010 show that the contribution of renewables to the UK's overall energy consumption – not just electricity – rose over the year by only 0.3% to 3.3%.
RenewableUK, the trade body that promotes green energy, said the overall figures for wind, hydro and solar were good. "Clearly there is a growth trend. It's perhaps not as strong as a lot of people would like, but renewables and wind show a greater contribution in 2010 and in the first quarter of 2011," said a spokesman.
But Gaynor Hartnell, chief executive of another trade body, the Renewable Energy Association, was less happy. "These statistics illustrate very well what the [government's] committee on climate change told parliament [this week] – a significant increase in pace of deployment of renewables is necessary."
The DECC figures show offshore wind generation increased by 75% during 2010 though the output from onshore wind fell 6% – blamed on the lowest average wind speeds of the century.
Critics argue that the increase in coal-burning is due to plant owners taking advantage of the relative cheapness of coal over gas while trying to beat planned new carbon restrictions, which come in during 2013. A floor price for CO2 is being introduced by the government as part of its new energy bill, which will gradually ramp up the penalty for using high-carbon fuels such as coal.
Also, a quarter of Britain's coal-fired power stations will be forced close by 2015 at the latest under tough EU pollution regulations known as the large combustion plant directive.
Power companies have been benefiting from local coal production, however, with the small but active number of British facilities recording a 31% increase in output in the first quarter. Deep-mined coal showed an 80% rise as stocks were depleted due to demand from the utilities.
Industry experts believe owners of coal-fired plants are using them as intensively as possible before they become more expensive or have to be retired. But others argue the imbalance between coal and gas has been increased because British Gas has temporarily mothballed four of its less efficient gas-fired stations.
An arm of the Centrica group, British Gas has no coal-fired plants of its own. The company said that it had not been buying more electricity from its one coal-powered supplier, Drax, while ScottishPower denied it was producing more electricity from its two coal-fired plants.
DECC blamed lower wind speeds and dry weather for reducing the growth of renewables last year.
BG's coup
BG Group has doubled estimates for oil and gas reserves in the Santos Basin off Brazil to 6bn barrels and says the final figure could be as high as 8bn.
The announcement underlines how the former international exploration arm of British Gas has benefited from discoveries in very deep water off South America.
Shares in BG rose 5% to £14.21 at one stage after the company's chief executive, newly knighted Sir Frank Chapman, said: "I believe this – alongside progress with major ventures in Australia, the US and across our global portfolio – will transform the scope, scale and value of BG."
BG beat many oil majors into Brazil, and the City now expects it to sell off some of its acreage to Chinese or other eager competitors to help pay heavy development costs.
Oil analysts at Investec Securities said: "This is double the prior estimate, although broadly in line with the 5bn [barrels] we use in our modelling."
• Rising price of natural gas sees usage fall by 20%
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 June 2011 20.35 BST
Britain's green energy sector produced 27% more electricity in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year as the rapid expansion of offshore wind capacity started to bear fruit, official figures have revealed.
Renewables and nuclear both increased their low-carbon output – but the environmental benefits were undermined by power companies using 7% more coal.
The figures, published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), also showed the use of gas falling by 20% in the three months.
And there was a worrying picture for Britain's balance of payments, with domestic production of oil and gas from the North Sea falling heavily. Oil output was down 15.5% in the first quarter of 2011 on the same period in 2010, while imports of oil and oil products shot up fourfold, to 4m tonnes. Total indigenous production of natural gas fell in the first three months of 2011 by nearly 18%, but while gas exports were nearly 12.5% lower, imports were down 1.5% too.
The first quarter was strong for wind farms, but DECC statistics for 2010 show that the contribution of renewables to the UK's overall energy consumption – not just electricity – rose over the year by only 0.3% to 3.3%.
RenewableUK, the trade body that promotes green energy, said the overall figures for wind, hydro and solar were good. "Clearly there is a growth trend. It's perhaps not as strong as a lot of people would like, but renewables and wind show a greater contribution in 2010 and in the first quarter of 2011," said a spokesman.
But Gaynor Hartnell, chief executive of another trade body, the Renewable Energy Association, was less happy. "These statistics illustrate very well what the [government's] committee on climate change told parliament [this week] – a significant increase in pace of deployment of renewables is necessary."
The DECC figures show offshore wind generation increased by 75% during 2010 though the output from onshore wind fell 6% – blamed on the lowest average wind speeds of the century.
Critics argue that the increase in coal-burning is due to plant owners taking advantage of the relative cheapness of coal over gas while trying to beat planned new carbon restrictions, which come in during 2013. A floor price for CO2 is being introduced by the government as part of its new energy bill, which will gradually ramp up the penalty for using high-carbon fuels such as coal.
Also, a quarter of Britain's coal-fired power stations will be forced close by 2015 at the latest under tough EU pollution regulations known as the large combustion plant directive.
Power companies have been benefiting from local coal production, however, with the small but active number of British facilities recording a 31% increase in output in the first quarter. Deep-mined coal showed an 80% rise as stocks were depleted due to demand from the utilities.
Industry experts believe owners of coal-fired plants are using them as intensively as possible before they become more expensive or have to be retired. But others argue the imbalance between coal and gas has been increased because British Gas has temporarily mothballed four of its less efficient gas-fired stations.
An arm of the Centrica group, British Gas has no coal-fired plants of its own. The company said that it had not been buying more electricity from its one coal-powered supplier, Drax, while ScottishPower denied it was producing more electricity from its two coal-fired plants.
DECC blamed lower wind speeds and dry weather for reducing the growth of renewables last year.
BG's coup
BG Group has doubled estimates for oil and gas reserves in the Santos Basin off Brazil to 6bn barrels and says the final figure could be as high as 8bn.
The announcement underlines how the former international exploration arm of British Gas has benefited from discoveries in very deep water off South America.
Shares in BG rose 5% to £14.21 at one stage after the company's chief executive, newly knighted Sir Frank Chapman, said: "I believe this – alongside progress with major ventures in Australia, the US and across our global portfolio – will transform the scope, scale and value of BG."
BG beat many oil majors into Brazil, and the City now expects it to sell off some of its acreage to Chinese or other eager competitors to help pay heavy development costs.
Oil analysts at Investec Securities said: "This is double the prior estimate, although broadly in line with the 5bn [barrels] we use in our modelling."
Influential MEP calls for shale gas regulation
Jo Leinen is proposing a European directive that would penalise or even ban the exploitation of the controversial fossil fuel
Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 June 2011 12.27 BST
One of the most influential members of the European parliament is proposing a new directive that would penalise or even ban the exploitation of shale gas, the controversial new fossil fuel that is tipped as the major energy source of the future.
Jo Leinen told the Guardian he wanted a new "energy quality directive" that would mean fuels with adverse environmental impacts - such as shale gas and oil from tar sands - were stringently regulated within the EU.
Leinen chairs the EU parliament's main body overseeing environmental regulation, the influential committee on the environment, public health and food safety. He has the power to bring forward proposals that could make it into law within a few years.
Leinen said there was likely to be support for such a legislative intervention, as many MEPs are increasingly worried about the role of shale gas in the world's energy mix. Shale gas extraction has been linked to a wide variety of environmental problems, including pollution of the water supply, excessive use of water resources and potential seismic effects. In France, further expansion of the shale gas industry has been banned, and in the UK drilling operations have been halted after two small earthquakes near the exploration sites.
Although gas produces only half of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with coal when burned to produce electricity, one study from Cornell University has suggested that the true emissions related to shale gas could be greater than those from coal, if factors such as methane leakage during the extraction process were taken into account.
"We need to be looking much more carefully at shale gas, and at the consequences of pursuing it," said Leinen.
Although there are few details yet of what an energy quality directive would look like, the EU already has rules on transport fuel quality. A new directive could impose effective limits or financial penalties on shale gas use, depending on the environmental consequences associated with the fuel.
Other "unconventional" fossil fuel resources could also fall under the remit of such a directive, such as oil from tar sands.
Plans for a directive on energy quality are likely to be fiercely resisted by the gas industry, which for months has been lobbying strongly for shale gas to be accepted as a "green" alternative to renewable energy. Earlier this year, the European Gas Advocacy Forum adapted a report on the expansion of Europe's renewable energy industry to show instead that gas could deliver greenhouse gas savings at a lower cost than adopting renewables. The interpretation was rebuffed by the renewables industry, and the NGO that commissioned the original report.
A report from the International Energy Agency also found that gas was not a "panacea" and that pursuing gas as the main energy source for the future would cause global warming on a serious scale, raising temperatures by much more than the 2C that scientists regard as the limit of safety, beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.
There is dispute over the environmental effects of shale gas drilling, fuelled in part by the secrecy of the gas industry in the US, a pioneer of shale gas exploration. Several studies are now under way, including one spearheaded by Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, through the institute he also chairs, and one undertaken by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 June 2011 12.27 BST
One of the most influential members of the European parliament is proposing a new directive that would penalise or even ban the exploitation of shale gas, the controversial new fossil fuel that is tipped as the major energy source of the future.
Jo Leinen told the Guardian he wanted a new "energy quality directive" that would mean fuels with adverse environmental impacts - such as shale gas and oil from tar sands - were stringently regulated within the EU.
Leinen chairs the EU parliament's main body overseeing environmental regulation, the influential committee on the environment, public health and food safety. He has the power to bring forward proposals that could make it into law within a few years.
Leinen said there was likely to be support for such a legislative intervention, as many MEPs are increasingly worried about the role of shale gas in the world's energy mix. Shale gas extraction has been linked to a wide variety of environmental problems, including pollution of the water supply, excessive use of water resources and potential seismic effects. In France, further expansion of the shale gas industry has been banned, and in the UK drilling operations have been halted after two small earthquakes near the exploration sites.
Although gas produces only half of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with coal when burned to produce electricity, one study from Cornell University has suggested that the true emissions related to shale gas could be greater than those from coal, if factors such as methane leakage during the extraction process were taken into account.
"We need to be looking much more carefully at shale gas, and at the consequences of pursuing it," said Leinen.
Although there are few details yet of what an energy quality directive would look like, the EU already has rules on transport fuel quality. A new directive could impose effective limits or financial penalties on shale gas use, depending on the environmental consequences associated with the fuel.
Other "unconventional" fossil fuel resources could also fall under the remit of such a directive, such as oil from tar sands.
Plans for a directive on energy quality are likely to be fiercely resisted by the gas industry, which for months has been lobbying strongly for shale gas to be accepted as a "green" alternative to renewable energy. Earlier this year, the European Gas Advocacy Forum adapted a report on the expansion of Europe's renewable energy industry to show instead that gas could deliver greenhouse gas savings at a lower cost than adopting renewables. The interpretation was rebuffed by the renewables industry, and the NGO that commissioned the original report.
A report from the International Energy Agency also found that gas was not a "panacea" and that pursuing gas as the main energy source for the future would cause global warming on a serious scale, raising temperatures by much more than the 2C that scientists regard as the limit of safety, beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.
There is dispute over the environmental effects of shale gas drilling, fuelled in part by the secrecy of the gas industry in the US, a pioneer of shale gas exploration. Several studies are now under way, including one spearheaded by Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, through the institute he also chairs, and one undertaken by the US Environmental Protection Agency.