EU poised to push deep geological as nuclear solution

A European Commission draft directive into nuclear waste is to urge that it should be put in deep geological sites. The report is not released until November 3 but has been leaked to news agency Reuters, which today reports that it states: “The current situation of spent fuel and radioactive waste management in EU member […]

Green City could be the future

It’s a model of the city of the future that is quickly becoming a reality in the deserts of the Middle East. Masdar City, on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, will be a zero carbon city home to some 40,000 people. Standing in front of a scale model at the European Future of Energy Forum, […]

Zero carbon oasis

Oil state builds world’s first zero carbon city

Balfour Beatty workers unearth skeletons

Workers repairing gas mains in Chester have dug up human remains thought to have come from a nearby graveyard and dating from the 1600s. The discovery was made by workers from Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions, which is replacing the Victorian metallic mains. And the company has also unearthed so many other artefacts that it has […]

Researchers call time on putting back clocks

The UK could save at least 500,000 tonnes of CO2 if the clocks were not turned back in October. If clocks were left untouched, then the resulting extra hour of daylight would result in less electricity use. The case was put to MPs this morning at a meeting of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, […]

BIU demands refund of all CRC registration fees

Utility consultancy BIU is demanding that CRC registration fees should be refunded to all participants following last week’s change to the scheme. In the Spending Review, Chancellor George Osborne decided that any money made from the sale of carbon allowances would go into the government’s coffers instead of being recycled back into the scheme, as […]

Fossil Fuel Levy at centre of renewables row

A £191m kitty of cash known as the Fossil Fuel Levy is at the centre of a row over renewables and the Green Investment Bank between Prime Minister David Cameron and Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond. The levy is a Scottish government fund which, in last week’s Spending Review, George Osborne stated could only be […]

Government in talks on Severn tidal schemes

Energy minister Charles Hendry has revealed that the government is in talks with companies about tidal power schemes in the Severn Estuary. Just over a week ago the government pulled the plug on a plan for a £30m Severn Barrage which supporters said could have provided enough power for 5% of the UK’s homes. But […]

Innovation call targets generation-next energy inventors

Four of the UK’s leading energy firms are opening their doors to inventors who have ideas to make power networks more efficient. The quartet ­- CE Electric UK, Electricity North West, ScottishPower Energy Networks and Scottish & Southern Energy – are backing the Call for Energy Innovators 2010, a scheme which aims to link ‘know-how […]

Marine energy centre clinches power deal with SmartestEnergy

Electricity buyer and supplier SmartestEnergy has signed a power purchase deal with the European Marine Energy Centre. The contract covers all power generated from the wave and tidal devices at the EMEC’s flagship test centre in the Orkney Islands. The site runs several purpose-built ‘berths’ into which marine and tidal developers can install their machines […]