Gossage Gossip Securely complacent in Berlin Every few years, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) undertakes a full-scale review of each nation’s energy policy. Whilst the final publication always has to be ‘agreed’ by the relevant national government, such formal reviews are usually accepted to be the most rational and authoritative synopsis of just how sensible and far-sighted (or otherwise) each national energy policy is. The latest review of German energy policy was issued less than two years ago, late in 2020. The IEA’s adulatory press release concluded, ‘Energy security remains a focus area for the IEA, and Germany has maintained a high degree of oil, natural gas, and electricity supply security.’ I think we can safely reckon that such wonderful complacency, particularly regarding Russian supplies, would be unlikely to be received so generously now.
Turbines not fine More wind farms should not be built in Eastern Finland as turbines distract radar operations along the 1,300km land border with Russia, according to an official communique from the Finnish Ministry of Defence. After 103 years of neutrality, Finland has now officially joined NATO in reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Any further turbines over 50m tall or smaller ones situated close to strategic areas, require a green light from the armed forces. According to the military, the distance between a wind turbine and a radar installation must be at least 40km. Wind farms create shadow zones, interfering with reflections, making regional surveillance more difficult. Over the last decade, about 80% of statements given by the army concerning the establishment of wind farms had been positive. This year, most wind farm applications have been firmly rejected. Reconciling Finland’s move towards self-sufficiency in electricity and enhancing green transition while taking security concerns into account has – to put it diplomatically – complicated the situation.
A DNO don’t The official line from industry regulator Ofgem is clear – electricity prices are increasing massively again this September, largely because of ‘inflation in international energy prices’. However, a closer look at some of the obscurer graphs concerning DNOs published by the regulator does suggest that there may well be one or two other important contributory causes rather closer to home. One reveals that network costs have risen by a massive 39%, from an average £268 in the 2021/22 winter up to £371 from April 2022. Given the push for electrical heat pumps which have a much higher instantaneous demand for electricity than gas-heated boilers, then the network cost is only going to increase again in the next DNO price control.
8 Electrical Review | July / August 2022
SMRs create even more nuclear waste A planned new generation of small nuclear reactors will create more waste than conventional reactors, according to an authoritative new study. The projects, called small modular reactors (SMR), are designed to be simpler and safer than conventional plants in the case of an accident. They are also expected to be built in factories and shipped to locations across the world, as opposed to today’s massive reactors, which are built on-site and typically run billions of pounds over budget. SMR backers maintain they are a safe way to boost generation of virtually emissions-free electricity. But the reactors would create far more radioactive waste per unit of electricity they generate than conventional reactors by a factor of up to 30, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the American National Academy of Sciences. Some of these smaller reactors, with molten salt and sodium-cooled designs, are expected to create waste that needs to go through additional conditioning to make it safe to store in a repository. Allison Macfarlane, a co-author of the study and former head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said SMR designers ‘don’t pay that much attention in general to the waste, because the thing that makes money for them is the reactor. But it is important to know about the waste products, and whether they’re going to pose such difficulties in managing and then disposing of them. Which they are.’
EDF running out of money? The French government is to spend £20 billion buying back the final 16% of Electricité de France (EDF) shares still privately owned, bringing the company back under public ownership. Why are they renationalising this company? The answer is simple. It is to avoid EDF going bankrupt. Right now, over half (29 out of 56) of EDF’s French nuclear reactors are currently offline. The company is already hugely indebted and faces a massive bill of up to 100 billion euros (£85 billion) to keep its ageing nuclear fleet going. And EDF’s flagship EPR reactor is over-cost and over-time everywhere it is being attempted to be built. Aside from its debts, EDF has faced issues with ageing reactors, after experts warned President Macron of significant corrosion safety problems in EDF nuclear power plants in France as cracks were detected in the cooling systems of some nuclear reactors. Meanwhile there is delay after delay in bringing online every one of the EDF flagship nuclear reactors, in Finland, in France, even here in Somerset. In desperation to help fund its latest lossmaker at Sizewell, Suffolk, EDF is reaching out to fellow utility giant Centrica for help. Could this be the same Centrica, which in 2016 abandoned plans to invest in EDF’s Hinkley C partly because of ‘the lengthening time frame for a return on the capital invested in a project of this scale’?
