THE ENERGY INDUSTRY T I M E S October 2016 • Volume 9 • No 8 • Published monthly • ISSN 1757-7365 www.teitimes.com Special Technology Supplement Down to the wire Circulating fluidised beds help operators run circles around fuel costs. The financial impact of subsea cable faults could affect the drive to reduce the cost of offshore wind. Page 14 News In Brief Electricity sector investments hit record high Electricity sector investment continues to grow, led by renewable generation, even as global investment in energy falls. Page 2 Chinese investors target South America Chinese energy companies are targeting Brazilian asset sales in a bid to make strong headway into the growing South American power markets. Page 4 Climate goals call for over $7 trillion investment Asian economies, including India and China, require more than $7 trillion investment to meet the stated ambition to limit global warming to 2°C, a new report said recently. Page 6 Batteries find a home after EFR tender The results of National Grid’s first enhanced frequency response (EFR) tender show the growing importance of energy storage in the grid, experts say. Page 7 Areva seals Adwen’s future French engineering firm Areva says that a deal to sell its shares in Adwen to Gamesa will help it to focus its business on the nuclear fuel cycle. Page 9 Industry Perspective: Converging futures in the North Sea New ways of looking at technology are enabling closer collaboration between the renewables and the oil and gas sectors. Page 13 Technology: Living with smart grids The PowerMatching City demonstration project at Hoogkerk ended in late 2015, but the smart grid infrastructure remains in place to support any future projects. Page 15 Advertise advertising@teitimes.com Subscribe subscriptions@teitimes.com or call +44 208 523 2573 Final Word Data equals dollars, says Junior Isles. Page 16 Hinkley gets green light but could still face hurdles UK Business and Energy Secretary, Greg Clark, said Hinkley would be the “first of a wave of new nuclear plants” in Britain The UK’s first nuclear power plant in a generation has received the final go ahead from the government but obstacles could still remain. Junior Isles The planned Hinkley Point C could still face financial, legal and technical obstacles, despite receiving the final go ahead from the UK government last month. Just six weeks after the news that it would delay approval in order to carry out a review of the project, Prime Minister Theresa May gave Hinkley C her blessing in September after stipulating additional contract terms. The new clauses are designed to enhance security and ensure that the power station cannot change hands without the UK government’s agreement. The government also said there would be other “significant new safeguards for future foreign investment in critical infrastructure”, including the state taking a special share in all new nuclear projects after Hinkley, giving it powers to veto ownership changes. France’s EDF, the project’s developer, and China’s China General Nuclear CGN, which is providing £6 billion in funding, both made clear they did not regard the new safeguards as any obstacle to their plans for Bradwell. CGN is expected to submit its Hualong One reactor design to begin UK safety checks within months. Reacting to the news, John Sauven, Greenpeace Executive Director said: “This decision is unlikely to be the grand finale to this summer’s political soap opera. There are still huge outstanding financial, legal and technical obstacles that can’t be brushed under the carpet. There might be months or even years of wrangling over these issues.” Greenpeace cited technical issues that have been discovered in the reactor vessel and highlighted the poor financial state of EDF. Notably, it said: “There are several outstanding legal cases that muddy the waters considerably.” There is still the pending Austrian State Aid case that may not be resolved for years. Greenpeace said that, in addition to a possible new State Aid case against France, there are two outstanding French cases of the EDF board attempting to overturn the Final Investment Decision (FID). Greenpeace also has a case against the Information Commissioner asking for the modelling on which the Hinkley decision was made initially to be made public. Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) also said challenges may well lie ahead. “French trade unions don’t like it, nor do some of the likely candidates for the French Presidential Election next year, EDF’s finances are not the healthiest, and the French nuclear regulator is examining flaws in steel used for a similar reactor being built in France. So it may turn out not to be quite as ‘final’ as it looks now. The project’s proponents, however, remain confident. Greg Clark, the UK Business and Energy Secretary, said Hinkley would be the “first of a wave of new nuclear plants” in Britain, while Jean-Bernard Lévy, chairman of EDF, said it marked “the relaunch of nuclear in Europe”. Speaking at the World Nuclear Association Symposium just after the announcement, CEO of EDF Energy Vincent de Rivaz said: “We understood why the new government took the time to look at the project to study all its component parts… the review confirmed again the robustness of Businesses back clean energy at NYC Climate Week Continued on Page 2 Businesses demonstrated their support for climate action, announcing commitments to make better use of better energy, cleaner, smarter energy at this year’s Climate Week NYC in New York, USA. The announcements came from The Climate Group’s two leading corporate energy campaigns: RE100, the global initiative run in partnership with CDP that works with companies committed to transitioning to 100 per cent renewable power across all their operations; and EP100, a new global initiative run in partnership with the Global Alliance for Energy Productivity that works with businesses committed to doubling their energy productivity. During the opening ceremony Bank of America said that it would be joining RE100. As well as reducing emissions in its own operations, Bank of America for the first time announced quantitative goals to address emissions in its supply chain. “These new commitments build on our existing environmental strategy for both our operations as well as our business activities. This includes our $125 billion environmental business initiative, which is providing much needed capital to catalyse greater investments in clean energy and other low-carbon projects. Overall, we have provided more than $53 billion dollars to sustainable business activities since 2007,” said Andrew Plepler, Global Environmental, Social and Governance executive at Bank of America. “We’re joining RE100 to help keep these critical issues at the forefront of the business agenda, recognising the role of the private sector in addressing challenges associated with climate change. Together we can accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and low carbon economy.” Apple also said that it would join the RE100 campaign and announced the completion of a new 50 MW solar project in Arizona and new renewable energy commitments from its manufacturing partners. RE100 signed up eight new members, including: Wells Fargo & Co.; Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE); cloud computing companies VMware Inc. and Rackspace Inc.; VF Corporation, owner of many apparel and footwear brands; global alcoholic beverage company Diageo; and Norway’s largest financial services company DNB. The EP100 campaign also welcomed several new members – Dalmia Cement, Mahindra Holiday and Resorts India, global energy efficiency technology provider Danfoss Group, and Chinese LED manufacturer Hongbo Group. Despite EP100 being launched in recent months, the campaign already boasts corporate sign ups from India, China, Europe and the US. Research shows that in the US alone, doubling energy productivity by 2030 could save as much as $327 billion every year in energy costs and add up to 1.3 million jobs to the economy, while carbon dioxide emissions would be cut by approximately 33 per cent. THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES is published by Man in Black Media • www.mibmedia.com • Editor-in-Chief: Junior Isles • For all enquiries email: enquiries@teitimes.com
Energy Industry Times October 2016
To see the actual publication please follow the link above