Renew Extra Weekly

Posts

A golden nuclear age

Nuclear power will help take us into a ‘golden age of clean energy abundance’. So said UK Energy Secretary Ed Milliband, in the run up to the public spending review. He announced an extra £14.2 billion in state support for EdFs proposed 3.2GW Sizewell C European Pressurised-water Reactor (EPR) and also £2.5bn for small modular reactor support, with Rolls Royce having won the UK Small Modular Reactor (SMR) competition. There would also be £2.5bn to support fusion. Whereas there has been a lot a concern about the cost of Sizewell, given the delays and over-runs with its sister EPR plant at Hinkley, it was argued that the second plant would benefit from the lessons learnt, and certainly Miliband was very single-minded about it: ‘all of the expert advice says nuclear has a really important role to play in the energy system. In any sensible reckoning, this is essential to get to our clean power and net zero ambitions.’ Not everyone agreed with that, and, in any case, as t...

Offshore wind needs to ramp up in next CfD

Wind power has been a big success story in the UK. There is now 15GW in place on shore, and its hoped to double that by 2030 since the previous governments planning blocks have been removed. But although they started to be developed later than on shore projects, the UK now also has installed around 15GW of offshore wind capacity and has plans for much more- maybe up to 50GW by 2030. This progress has been driven by falling costs, and that’s expected to continue, but there may been some issues emerging as material and other manufacturing costs rise in line with wider trends in the economy. That has led to some project rethinks. For example, Orsted’s planned 2.4 GW Hornsea 4 offshore wind farms extension has been halted due to tight economics, and major energy supplier SSE is cutting back funding of new projects- big bad shocks. There is some better news, with 90 more wind turbines to be installed off the Sussex coast from Bognor Regis, joining t...

AI energy use ‘not a bad as feared’- but do we need it?

A lot has been said about the likely rise in energy demand as a consequence of the boom in use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. For example, researchers from Bloomberg NEF say that surging demand for AI will see data centre power demand double by 2050, whereas the International Energy Agency say it will quadruple by 2030. However, a new report from Energy Intelligence claims that, while AI will contribute to rising energy consumption, especially in the short term as data centre usage surges, it is unlikely to trigger the dramatic global power demand spike some have predicted. It says it expects AI ‘to only moderately increase global electricity demand to 2050. AI hardware and software efficiencies, and the operational benefits AI will bring to the power sector, will in time offset some of the increased power demand required by AI as it rolls out’. So who is right? Well, AI and data centre technology is changing fast, so it’s hard to say what exactly it’s ener...

More Renewables - or more nuclear?

In my last post, I looked at how, despite renewable expansion, emissions were still rising. I focussed mainly on coal , but clearly it’s wider than that: multi-billion fossil fuel investment continues. In this post I will look at what is arguably another big issue- the attempt, to rebrand nuclear as a solution. Certainly some people in the UK and elsewhere think that there is a case for nuclear as part of a low carbon answer to climate change, although others do not agree . Even leaving aside the safety, security and waste issues, they say it’s too expensive and takes too long to build compared with renewables. That debate continues, but in terms of what’s actually happening on the ground, the battle has arguably been won by renewables - they are expanding very rapidly around the world, leaving nuclear mostly stalled. Even China’s nuclear programme, currently at around 60 GW, is tiny compared with its renewables capacity, which hit 1.82 TW last year and is still expan...

More renewables- or more coal?

93% of new global electricity generation capacity was from renewable energy last year, says IRENA . That sounds very impressive. But, sadly, that’s only half the story. As the IEA noted, global energy demand grew by 2.2% in 2024, led by the power sector with electricity demand surging by 4.3%, well above the 3.2% growth in global GDP, driven by record temperatures, higher electrification and increased digitalisation. Renewables met the largest share of the growth, but not all of it (fossil fuel use also expanded) and so renewable expansion was not enough to cut net new emissions. So, we are running fast to not even stand still. That’s how French economist Fressoz sees it in his new book ‘More & More & More’. He says that renewables are just additive - fossil fuel growth just continues, feeding yet more demand. And on top of that, renewables use scarce materials, adding to eco-damage. So putting this all together, along with continued population growth, y...

Carbon capture and its alternatives

Most energy scenarios assume the rapid expansion of renewables, but it is sometimes claimed that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is also needed to get to Net Zero Carbon. There are many plans and expectations, but so far no CCS system has proved viable at scale, and, although some tests have been made e.g. of carbon storage , the full thing is still some way off, with plenty of teething problems . Nevertheless, the UK has earmarked £22bn for CCS development- a major commitment. That has not met with unalloyed support given that it is still all about using fossil fuel fossil and is an unproven technology with unknown costs . But, for good or ill, NZT Power, off the NE coast of the UK, seems likely to be the world’s first full scale gas-fired power plant with carbon capture & storage. Its start-up is expected in 2028- though a rival project on the NW coast is also now pushing ahead, with £2bn allocated. However, neither are done deals - there may yet ...