A former energy minister has joined the Renewable Energy Association as an independent Non-Executive Board member. Baroness Verma will be looking at the strategic role of renewables and clean technologies in the UK as well as trade opportunities for British services and manufacturing in emerging markets. She served as an energy minister during the coalition […]

Coal plants could sweep up in the auctions to provide power for Britain in future, leaving precious little space for low carbon power generation or energy efficiency, fears the Labour peer Baroness Worthington. She is concerned retrofitted coal plants could apply to participate in the capacity mechanism. In December, the Government will run the first […]

A new Emergency Response Centre (ERC) has opened at the Sizewell B nuclear power station. The centre contains back-up control systems to allow operators to command the station remotely if necessary, as well as emergency equipment, high pressure pumps and vehicles that could be sent out in the case of an extreme event (pictured). The […]

The House of Lords yesterday voted in favour of forcing coal-fired power plants to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. The Government was defeated by the Labour party by 237 to 193 as the Lords agreed to get plant operators to apply the Emissions Performance Standard (EPS) to cut their carbon emissions. Power plants using coal, […]

Two British businesses have been awarded a share of more than £5 million for innovation in energy storage. The two firms won the contracts as part of DECC’s second phase of a £17 million energy storage technology demonstration competition launched in October last year. REDT UK has won £3.6 million to carry out more research […]

The Government has launched a new consultation on how communities across the country will be consulted on hosting nuclear radioactive waste sites. Under the new approach, communities would be provided with more information at an earlier stage in the process, a positive community-wide support would be required before a community could host a Geological Disposal […]

The UK Government is inviting views on the site selection process to find a host community for an underground disposal facility for radioactive waste. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) issued a call for evidence yesterday of the on-going Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) programme. It follows Cumbria County Council’s decision earlier this […]

The UK’s nuclear authority is to conduct a series of plutonium swaps and transfers in a bid to allow the nation to gain more control of the chemical element. The Department of Energy and Climate Change said the transactions will offer a cost-effective and beneficial arrangement and avoid the need to physically transport plutonium – […]

The Government has published a set of rules for its smart meter roll-out aiming to protect the privacy of consumers as it aims to replace more than 53 million gas and electricity meters by 2019. Under the new rules, customers can decide how often their supplier can access their energy usage data and they will […]