Renew Extra Weekly

‘All of the expert advice says nuclear has a really important role to play in the energy system. So said UK Energy Secretary Ed Milliband, announcing an extra £14.2bn allocation for the proposed new Sizewell C reactor. Putting it charitably, he seems to have been poorly informed.  As I noted in an earlier post, there are many expert studies suggesting that there is no need for nuclear and that, in fact, it is a poor choice compared with renewables - which are cheaper as a way to respond to climate change . At least one of the submissions that I have seen to the ongoing Nuclear Roadmap Inquiry , run by the energy security and net zero Select Committee, takes a similar line- nuclear is too costly, slow and unreliable, with offshore wind being a better option.  However, it seems that the Select Committee will not start work on its report until later in the year, so it may be a while before we can see the results of its deliberations and all the submissions. And, meanwhile, the ...

A new report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) from Greenpeace, produced by Öko-Institut in Germany, says that, by 2030, carbon emissions from AI datacentres will be six times the 2023 level, and notes that ‘leading players in the field of AI are increasingly turning to nuclear energy to meet the growing electricity demands of their data centres.’  It says that Google explicitly defines nuclear as clean energy and has signed agreements to purchase electricity from small modular reactors (SMRs).  Amazon similarly justifies its investments in nuclear and has signed three new agreements to support nuclear projects, including SMRs. Meta has, it says, gone a step further, expressing interest in developing its own nuclear power projects specifically to power its AI data centres. And in addition to its support for a revamp of old closed Three Mile Island plant, Microsoft has been promoting ‘advanced nuclear’ as a key part of its carbon-free electricity strategy. Greenpeace notes that ...

 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...

 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...

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...

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...