EON promoting ‘Thames Cluster’ of CCS plants.

If funding becomes available (and ccs is fundementally an economic question) then E.On is looking at the possiblity of combining numerous coal plants into a cluster of ccs units.

http://www.eon-uk.com/generation/1784.aspx

No coal power construction in the UK this year.(15th May)

Via Construction News

The procurement process for the £1.5 billion Kingsnorth power station rebuild is not expected to progress this year, according to Kier director Paul Sheffield.

Kier, one of six contractors and consortia in talks with client E.On over the project, is not expecting to find out much more about the job before Christmas.

Client E.On has refused to give a timetable for the project, and is waiting to see how its carbon capture and storage infrastructure will be funded.

Mr Sheffield said: “We are not expecting anything to happen on Kingsnorth this year, as E.On is still waiting for its section 36 [planning permission]. There is still the possibility it could all fall through.”

Energy secretary Ed Miliband has committed to helping fund up to four coal-fired power station CCS schemes. But energy firms must wait for the forthcoming coal consultation to close before any designs will be approved.

Laing O’Rourke, Morgan Est, Balfour Beatty and Bam Nuttall are also all in talks with E.On over the Kingsnorth job, as is a Costain/Hochtief joint venture.

EON seeks opt out on CCS deadline. (11th May)

A recent DECC press release had two main points:

1. No new ccs without some ccs.
2. Remainder of plant not fitted with ccs must adopt the technology when independently deemed ‘economically and technologically proven’.

That first point is clear. The second point tries to have it both ways and neither the energy companies nor civil society are happy.

Energy companies are already working on watering down the second point.

Energy companies will lobby the government for a get-out clause from the deadline to fully fit carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to new coal plants by 2025 because they are worried it might not work in time.

Companies, including German-owned groups E.ON and RWE npower, want guarantees that they will not be forced to close their coal-fired plants in 2025 if the technology has not been proven by then.

So this is the next battle that has to be won before the uk can officailly claim to be beyond coal.

Ed Miliband: All new coal will need portion of CCS (23rd April)

DECC put out a press release on the 23rd of April which dashed the hopes of the construction industry which had been hoping for a series of new coal plants in the UK.

• No new coal plants are to be built without some Carbon Capture and Storage.
• The remainder of any plant built will have to be fitted with CCS  within 5 years of it being judged ‘technically and economically proven‘.

The first point puts an end to people just carrying on business as usual. The second point could, in practice, mean that ccs will be forced on companies in the near term or they could be left alone indefinetly. The second point is a cop-out. Which E.ON and uk civil society have already started fighting over.

Full statement bellow.

Ed Milibands’ girlfriend works for E.ON

Energy and Climate Change minister Ed Miliband is in a relationship with an environmental lawyer who curretly works for e.on.

Some might say it would be difficult not to permit a project that your potential life partner is working on pushing through.

• Daily Mail Article
• Telegraph

Decision on Kingsnorth Delayed

Via the Guardian

Decisions about any new coal-fired power plants in the UK have been delayed until the autumn, prompting warnings from energy companies about the growing risk that the country could run out of electricity generating capacity.

Ministers were due to make a decision last year on an application to build the first new coal plant in the UK for a generation at Kingsnorth in Kent – a move expected to trigger submissions for further projects.

However, insiders said the decision was not now expected until after the summer because of a decision by the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, to order a fresh review of coal policy. The Guardian revealed last week that Miliband was considering plans for tough new limits on global warming emissions from coal plants and wanted the government to help fund more carbon capture and storage projects to make this happen.

The decision was earlier delayed by another government consultation on what companies building new coal plants would have to do to make them “capture ready”, announced last year.

Jonathan Smith, E.ON’s media relations manager, said: “We do not expect any imminent decision, by any stretch of the imagination.”

A further delay in the controversial decision about Kingsnorth will delight environmentalists, who have singled out the Kent plant for opposition, because coal is the most polluting form of energy, and because of concern that building a coal plant without strict pollution control would destroy attempts to curb carbon emissions in emerging economies.

However, Smith said further delays raised the threat that the UK could not build the new plants in time to replace the nuclear and old coal power stations that are due to be closed in the next decade.

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “A decision on Kingsnorth will follow our consultation on the conditions around new coal-fired power stations. We are aware of the need to ensure security of energy supplies.”

Ed Miliband on UK Coal and CCS

Ed Miliband has been speaking to the Department of Energy and Climate Change Committee.

When: Wednesday 25 February at 9.15am ended at 11.17am

Where: Department of Energy and Climate Change Committee

On What:  Coal power, energy and climate change.

Notes:  not yet online

Video: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=3495

Related:  Ed Crooks FT 25th Feb;  Ed Crooks, Fyona Harvey FT,

Govornment planning to go big on CCS?

According to an article in the Guardian on Feb 25th 2009 the government’s is considering a major scaling up of investment in carbon capture and storage. From what this author knows of CCS this would seem to be a misallocation of resources, however, if we are seeing a definitive shift against any new coal without CCS then this would certainly be a welcome development.

According to Chris Smith, former head of the Environment Agency, there is a battle going on over those funds.

“There is a battle going on between the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Treasury to secure the necessary funds for as wide a range of demonstration projects as possible.”

Perhaps they will take a leaf out of the Conservatives book and use funding from ETS auctions to raise the funds.

“The Conservatives have said they would fund CCS demonstrations using money raised by auctioning carbon allowances under the European Emissions Trading System.”

A couple of things concern me about this.  I think the money could be better spent on renewables. The govornment has often used hyperbole when describing CCS but the environmental audit committe amongst others has been critical of its complete lack of commmitment.  If –as i suspect, ccs proves to be very expensive and to remain so, and to be vulberable to increasing coal prices, then we may all wish that funds had been better spent on renewables, which only get cheaper with volume of production, the opposite of fossil fuels.

Rethink on ‘clean coal’ funding.

Via the FT

By Ed Crooks

More than one “clean coal” power station could receive official funding, said Ed Miliband, energy secretary, yesterday, changing the government’s policy on backing for the technology.

This could be good for Powerfuel, owned by mining entrepreneur Richard Budge, which hopes to build a clean coal plant in Mr Miliband’s Yorkshire constituency that has not been eligible for support.

This dosent directly relate to EON as any second project would be in adittion to the CCS competition in which Kingsnorth is entered. The key question in the case of Kingsnorth is weather it is a good test site for CCS technology and weather having only 5% ccs on a coal plant is considered good enough by the uk govornment.

EON Talk to the HoC Energy and Climate Change Committee

Who? E.On commercial director Jim MacDonald

About? Energy prices and future investment.

When? 9:15am 11/Feb/2009

Commitee?  HoC Energy and Climate Change Committee

Video? Link here.

Paul Golby: He’s a Hero!

EON  plans to build the first new coal plant in over 30 years in the uk. Some of us see that as a negative thing and see EON’s boss as a very naughty boy. He, however, sees himself as the saviour of the UK. Fighting it out to make sure that the UK gets its fair share of dirty coal. This arrogance works quite well with the security of supply angle that they are pushing; where security basically means price. If the govornment don’t help Paul, he might just give up the fight, and not build new generating capacity. Then the UK will really have an energy gap; how very much like the mafia EON is. “You wouldnt want that energy grid to get broken, would you?”

“I am out there batting for the UK to get its share of the international company’s investment portfolio and it becomes that much more difficult if I cannot show that the returns will justify that investment.”

Malcom Wicks on CCS

The Environmental Audit Committee has made it quite clear that the govornment has moved with a complete lack of urgency on carbon capture and storage…that isn’t because like some of us they think it’s not going to ammount to anything, nope, its because they have there priorities badly mixed up. They are complacent and distressingly incompetent. And look at the rhetoric from Malcom Wicks:

Mr Wicks defended the use of coal in power stations as necessary. “Coal is and will continue to be, in our judgment, a vital part of the energy mix. Diversity is vital. If we don’t have coal, it will bring forth an extra dash for gas. We need to think of the national security implications for that.”

Describing CCS as vital and “dear to my heart”, he said: “We are leading the world on CCS technology.”

Malcom wicks stod down from his place at BERR but is now gordon browns international energy envoy, and thats a bit more responsibility than i`d like him to have.

EON Construction News

Energy giant Eon has been meeting with contractors to determine exactly how funds for the £1.5 billion Kingsnorth power station rebuild will be spent – as the Government continues to debate approval for the key scheme.

Laing O’Rourke, Morgan Est, Balfour Beatty, Kier, Bam Nuttall and a Costain/Hochtief joint venture are all bidding for the work, which has been divided into four packages – piling, enabling works, cooling water system civils works and the ‘power island’ (the main building).

One bidder said: “It’s difficult to say how much each package will be worth, there’s a lot of work being done to evaluate them. “And everything depends on when the Government gives approval for the job, it feels like we could still be a long way off.”

EU plans increased investment in CCS

The EU have just made a move which makes Kingsnorth getting the go ahead that much more likely. Labour dont seem to see renewables as a viable alternative to coal, despite vast evidence supporting this case. They are therefore left in an extremely invidious position where giving coal the go ahead with guarentees that CCS will be used in the future looks like the most viable option to them. However, there are a great deal of risks about this proposal and EON most likely wouldnt build Kingsnorth if it had to bear the risk…the govornment may therefore look to support eon phasing in CCS in the medium term. This would be made easier with the latest round of EU investment –1.25billion euros–in the technology.

EON Cuts 450 Jobs in Retail Arm

EON has shed 450 jobs in the retail arm of it’s UK business.

Renewables cant do the job.

Continuning the energy security vs climate change theme is Ed Miliband. Despite the fact that renewable energies are by and large domestic, it seems that the UK DECC just cant get its head arund the idea that renewables can be a quick and cost effective solution to climate change. They dont even seem that keen in engaging in projects to make large scale renewables a reality.

Ed Miliband on Coal

Via the Sunday Times

Miliband refused to say if he would award the CCS money to Eon, or if he would approve the plant if it lost the competition.

“It is very difficult to reconcile security of supply with our low-carbon obligations, but I don’t want to anticipate what I have to announce to parliament in the coming weeks and months on our approach to this issue because it is a very sensitive matter.”

He admitted, however, that he thinks “Britain should lead by example on CCS”. Giving the green light to a dirty new coal plant would not be seen as setting a good example.

EON on Energy Prices, fuel poverty and Ofgem

Who:  Paul Golby, E.ON

About:  Energy Prices, fuel poverty and Ofgem

To Whom:  House of Commons, Business and Enterprise Committee

Date of Oral Evidence:  17th June 2008

Link: PDF 1,  PDF 2

Video:  Evidence Session on Video

Detailes after the fold…

Energy Gap Angle

Some of the biggest news at the moment in relation to the UK’s energy sector is focused on the idea of an energy gap.  This perspective again hit the headlines due to a study which found that many of the UK’s coal plants are going to close sooner than expected. These plants oppted out of the EU’s large combustion directive i.e they didnt want the expense of better pollution control. They where given a certain number of opporational hours before closing down. As they where ’peaking’ plants at the time, this would have lasted them quite a few years but now that gas is more expensive and they are acting as baseload things are quite differnt.

The key question of course is how we meet this gap; and developing renewables and waste heat as a credible alternative has to be a priority for climate campaigners.

Bellow is a summary from the PA