Interesting links, articles, news and blog posts sent out to members on 08/02/22.
News: UK Government criticised for failing to set emissions targets for farming and land use – Edie.net
8 February 2022. The UK’s land must become a net carbon sink by 2040 if the UK Government is to meet its long-term climate targets but, to date, it has failed to produce joined-up plans for transitioning land use while supporting farmers and communities:
Open consultation: Low carbon fuel strategy: call for ideas – Department for Transport
7 February 2022. Invites proposals, ideas and areas to be addressed in the creation of a long-term low carbon fuels strategy for the transport sector:
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/low-carbon-fuel-strategy-call-for-ideas
Press release: Funding for energy efficiency upgrades will slash fuel bills for 20,000 social housing properties – Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and Lord Callanan
7 February 2022. Funding for 69 projects will help cut fuel bills for social housing tenants and deliver warmer homes
Formal meeting (oral evidence session): Energy pricing and the future of the Energy Market – Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee
8 February 2022. Formal meeting (oral evidence session): Energy pricing and the future of the Energy Market:
Link: https://committees.parliament.uk/event/6991/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/
News: Windfall tax looming: BP may end up in firing line if it reports expected 30-fold increase in profits – City AM
7 February 2022, Michiel Willems. Oil giant British Petroleum could end up in the firing line when it reports this week what analysts expect might be a more than 30-fold increase in its profit in the closing months of last year:
News: Climate change: Top companies exaggerating their progress – study – BBC News Online
7 February 2022, Georgina Rannard. Many of the world’s biggest companies are failing to meet their own targets on tackling climate change, according to a study of 25 corporations:
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60248830
News: £40bn profits for BP and Shell fuel calls for windfall tax on energy firms – Guardian Online
5 February 2021, Phillip Inman. ‘Obscene’ amounts of surplus cash should be used to ease cost of living crisis, MPs told:
News: Shell CEO dismisses calls for windfall tax to reduce household energy bills – City AM
3 February 2022, Nicholas Earl. Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden has pushed back against rising calls for a windfall levy to ease the burden on energy consumers amid soaring wholesale costs, historic price cap hikes, and widespread market carnage:
Link: https://www.cityam.com/shell-ceo-windfall-tax-not-the-answer-to-deepening-energy-crisis/
Press release: New reforms to renewable energy scheme to boost supply chains – Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and The Rt Hon Greg Hands MP
4 February 2022. Consultation launched over changes to Contracts for Difference scheme to make supply chains more competitive, productive and efficient
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-reforms-to-renewable-energy-scheme-to-boost-supply-chains
News: New technology to effectively remove 99% of carbon dioxide from air – Inceptive Mind
5 February 2022, Amit Malewar. University of Delaware engineers have developed a new ‘hyper-efficient method’ to effectively capture 99% of carbon dioxide from air using a novel electrochemical system powered by hydrogen. It is a significant advance for carbon dioxide capture and could bring more environmentally friendly fuel cells closer to the market:
Link: https://www.inceptivemind.com/new-technology-effectively-remove-99-per-carbon-dioxide-air/23211/
Article: Where’s the ‘fairness’ in using off-grid homes as the testing ground for heat policies? – Politics Home
4 February 2022, OFTEC. The government may be in a hurry to decarbonise Britain’s homes and businesses, but in its haste, it is leaving fairness to off-grid households to fall by the wayside:
Article: Where can Europe get its Gas if Russia cuts off supplies? – Energy Post.eu
3 February 2022, Amy Myers Jaffe, Tufts University, looks at the constraints on global LNG supply (mainly liquification and regasification capacity), the global ability to redirect shipments to Europe, and the impact on non-European markets. Jaffe also looks at the risks Russia is taking:
Link: https://energypost.eu/where-can-europe-get-its-gas-if-russia-cuts-off-supplies/
Overview: 4 February 2022 Price Cap decisions – Ofgem
4 February 2022. Ofgem has published a range of decision documents relating to the default tariff cap (the ‘cap’) methodology:
Link: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/overview-4-february-2022-price-cap-decisions
Consultation: Medium Term Changes to the Price Cap Methodology – Ofgem
4 February 2022. Ofgem is consulting on a number of changes to the price cap methodology in response to the recent unprecedented rise in wholesale market prices and volatility:
Link: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/consultation-medium-term-changes-price-cap-methodology
Press release: Default tariff cap level: 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022 – Ofgem
3 February 2022. Ofgem has now published the cap levels that come into effect from 1 April 2022. The updated versions of the underlying models have also been published:
Link: https://ofgem-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/default-tariff-cap-level-1-april-2022-to-30-september-2022
Article: Windfall tax on energy firms wins support from MPs but government resists – Engineering & Technology
2 February 2022, Jonathan Wilson. MPs have backed calls for a windfall tax on oil and gas producers to help ease the energy price crisis, but the government continues to resist the “misguided” proposal:
News: Energy price volatility to last until 2030 at least, warns Cornwall Insight – Current News
2 February 2022, Molly Lempriere. Volatility in the wholesale energy market is likely to last until at least 2030 unless significant changes are made to long-term energy strategies, according to Cornwall Insight:
House of Commons Report: Decarbonising heat in homes (Seventh Report of Session 2021–22) – Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee
18 January 2022. House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee Report: Decarbonising heat in homes:
Link: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/8742/documents/88647/default/
News: Government plans £6bn loan scheme to protect households from soaring energy bills – City AM
2 February 2022, Nicholas Earl. Downing Street is set to announce billions of pounds in state-backed loans to ease the burden on energy users, according to The Times:
National statistics: Final UK greenhouse gas emissions national statistics: 1990 to 2020 – Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
1 February 2022. Final estimates of UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions:
News: New committee launched to help UK Government avoid hydrogen policy pitfalls – Edie.net
31 January 2022. The Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) former vice chair Baroness Brown is among the members of a new ‘Hydrogen Policy Commission’, which will advise policymakers as the green and blue hydrogen sectors scale up in the UK:
News: Johnson eyes measures to help families deal with rising energy bills – City AM
31 January 2022. Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are set to agree upon a package of measures this week designed to ease the burden of incoming energy bill hikes next month for low-income households:
Link: https://www.cityam.com/johnson-eyes-measures-to-help-families-deal-with-rising-energy-bills/
News: As oil & gas firms make £900 a sec this thread slams the energy ‘crisis’ – The London Economic
29 January 2022, Joe Mellor. Oil companies Shell and BP are raking in more than £7billion profit between them in just three months, while households are reeling from a cost of living crisis, reports the Mirror:
News: Energy crisis: How countries are dealing with rising prices – BBC News Online
30 January 2022, Robert Plummer. Household gas and electricity bills are going up across Europe as the continent’s energy crisis bites. Soaring global prices of natural gas, which is used to heat homes and generate electricity, have caught governments on the hop:
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60112068
Comment: Carbon offsetting is not warding off environmental collapse – it’s accelerating it – Guardian Online
26 January 2022, George Monbiot. Wealthy companies are using the facade of ‘nature-based solutions’ to enact a great carbon land grab:
News story: Caroline Flint appointed Chair of the Committee on Fuel Poverty – Committee on Fuel Poverty and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
27 January 2022. Caroline Flint has been appointed to the Committee on Fuel Poverty (CFP) in the role of Chair:
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/caroline-flint-appointed-chair-of-the-committee-on-fuel-poverty
Report: Hydrogen blending for home heating would push energy prices higher – Edie.net
27 January 2022. The UK’s plans to begin delivering gas blends of 20% hydrogen from next year would be unwise, a scientific study has concluded, as they would increase gas bills and exacerbate the existing price crisis:
News: Government must prioritise heat pumps over hydrogen for decarbonising domestic heat – Current News
27 January 2022, Alice Grundy. Hydrogen infrastructure won’t be viable for domestic heating applications at scale for at least the next decade, research from Imperial College London’s Energy Futures lab has found:
News: SSE and Equinor submit two joint carbon capture projects – Future Net Zero
26 January 2022. These have been submitted to the government’s ‘Cluster Sequencing Process’ competition:
Link: https://www.futurenetzero.com/2022/01/26/sse-and-equinor-submit-two-joint-carbon-capture-projects/
News: NIF: US lab takes further step towards nuclear fusion goal – BBC News Online
26 January 2022, Paul Rincorn. US physicists have confirmed that they achieved a stage in nuclear fusion called “burning plasma” last year:
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60148105
News: Government pledges £100m for Sizewell nuclear site – BBC News Online
27 January 2022. The government is putting up £100m to support the planned Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk, Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has announced:
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60140854
News: Government awards £60m to floating offshore wind technology projects – Current News
25 January 2022, Molly Lempriere. Over £60 million in public and private investment has been awarded to 11 floating offshore wind projects:
Press release: £60 million boost for floating offshore wind – Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and The Rt Hon Greg Hands MP
25 January 2022. More than £31 million of UK government funding, matched by more than £30 million of industry funding, for development of innovative floating offshore wind technologies:
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/60-million-boost-for-floating-offshore-wind
Press release: Energy policy briefings ensure better collaboration with UK academics – Open Innovation Team, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and UK Research and Innovation
24 January 2022. The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is working with the OIT and UKRI to provide energy policy briefings for UK academics:
Press release: STEP closer to naming site of first fusion energy power plant – UK Atomic Energy Authority and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
24 January 2022. Five sites among shortlist:
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/step-closer-to-naming-site-of-first-fusion-energy-power-plant
News: The end of fossil fuels: Germany and the Netherlands at odds over how to move away from gas – Euronews.green
24 January 2022, Jonny Walfisz. Germany has formally disagreed with the EU’s proposal for how member states should move away from fossil fuels, a further blow to the already controversial proposal:
Call for Evidence: Electricity Distribution Business Plans for RIIO-2 – Ofgem
24 January 2022. This call for evidence seeks stakeholder views on any aspect of Electricity Distribution Network Operators’ Business Plans for RIIO-2, and provides a structure respondents should follow:
Link: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/call-evidence-electricity-distribution-business-plans-riio-2