UK Energy

The UK risks becoming a dumping ground for the products of forced labour from Xinjiang province in China if it rejects reforms proposed by members of the foreign affairs select committee with cross-party support, ministers have been warned.

An amendment to the energy bill, due to be debated on Tuesday, would require solar energy companies to prove that their supply chains are free of slave labour. The Xinjiang region is the source of 35%-40% of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon, the key raw material in the solar photovoltaic supply chain.

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It would require the Planning Inspectorate in England to ban any nationally significant infrastructure project over 50MW if it could not be proven beyond doubt that slave labour had not been involved.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is calling for the UK Government to reintroduce a £400 energy bill rebate.

Energy bills have skyrocketed, with the average cost nearly doubling from 2021 levels.

Recent hikes in standing charges have only exacerbated the problem, adding up to £300 to annual bills.

Energy consultancy Cornwall Insight has issued warnings of further energy bill increases this winter.

A few days ago, Ofgem announced the energy price cap that will stand at £1,923 from 1st October.

Last month, a report by Investec Bank Plc estimated that the average household energy bill would remain at £1,900 per year throughout the third quarter of 2024.

A recent report by the Resolution Foundation indicates that this winter, over a third of households in England, approximately 7.2 million homes, are poised to experience higher energy bills than the previous year, with nearly half of the poorest families affected.

Octopus Energy has signed a deal with Shell to buy its UK energy arm, meaning one of Britain’s most popular suppliers will now power almost one in four homes.

The deal will require regulator approval and Shell customers were advised to “sit tight” for now, with it hoped to be formalised in the final quarter of the year.

Octopus has the highest approval rating of any UK energy supplier according to a Bain & Company survey recently, and has been Which?’s Recommended Energy Supplier for six years running.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/4314753

The cable will run from the 49.9MW Willows Green Solar Farm near Felsted will the built mainly under roads for 5.3km east of the proposed solar farm to Braintree Substation near Galleys Corner.

At full capacity, 50MW is enough to power ~60,000 homes! That's enough for nearly 10% of all of Essex. Glad these are getting connected even though there's plenty of North Sea oil and gas. UK! UK! UK!

The UK could pull out of the international energy charter treaty if attempts to reform it fail, the energy minister, Graham Stuart, has said.

The energy charter treaty (ECT) is a system of secret courts that enables companies to sue governments over policies that would cut their future profits. Companies have sued over phasing out coal-fired power stations, ending offshore oil drilling and banning fracking, with some receiving large taxpayer-funded payouts.

Britain’s Northern Gas Networks has reported that the proposed Redcar Hydrogen Village in northeastern England could bring significant benefits to the area.

These include over £300 million ($381 million) of investment over the next ten years and at least 300 engineering and other high-quality jobs in what the company states as a historically underfunded region.

Northern Gas Networks is currently in discussions with government about the go-ahead of the proposed hydrogen village, which would see around 2,000 homes in the Yorkshire coastal town of Redcar converted to run on hydrogen.

Unfortunately, the cap is still considerably higher than it was before the energy crisis began and is unlikely to help households in real terms all that much. “The situation for millions of households is still incredibly desperate,” says Smith. “When the price cap takes effect in October, we estimate that 6.3m UK households will be living in fuel poverty. That’s 2m more [than] at the start of this crisis.”

Will the price cap make much of a difference?

The average household that is paying by direct debit should be seeing a fall of about £150 a year in their bills, however, as the government has withdrawn its financial support over the course of the summer, millions of households could end up paying more than they did last winter. This is particularly concerning as record numbers of households already have significant energy debt as they head into the colder months. “They’re going to be carrying that financial burden as they try to pay off their existing usage at the same time,” Smith says.

Then there are standing charges, the fixed daily amount on your bill, which have increased significantly in recent years. They are expected to rise to more than £300. According to the NEA, standing charges for the typical customer have increased by two-thirds since the introduction of the 2019 Ofgem price cap as a way for energy companies to recover costs.

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Are there any alternatives?

The point of the energy price cap is not to keep bills affordable for consumers – it is designed to limit the profits of energy companies. Even Ofgem’s chief executive has questioned whether the price control mechanism is adequate, pushing the government to rethink the “very broad and crude” framework. Jonathan Brearley added that the price cap made sense in a more stable market, but the volatility of the current market has rendered it less effective.

Charities, campaign groups, experts and even some energy suppliers are calling on the government to create a social energy tariff, a discounted energy bill targeted at low-income and vulnerable households. Smith says that social tariffs existed in the 2000s on a voluntary basis; he attributes its limited success to the fact that it was not well targeted. “We believe it would be possible to learn from those previous mistakes,” he says. The NEA argues that this tariff must be additional to existing protections.

The government has announced that it is “developing a new approach” to protect customers from rising bills, but have seemingly abandoned any pledges to put a social tariff in place.

Ofgem said: “By raising the EBIT allowance, Ofgem is taking the next step in its drive to make the retail energy sector more resilient, as we move into another difficult winter when price volatility remains a risk.

“At the height of the energy crisis around 30 suppliers failed because they did not have enough capital in the reserve to stay in business – and the cost was shared among all energy consumers, adding £83 to bills.

“With suppliers only now starting to recoup a portion of their multi-billion pound losses over the past four years, a small increase in permitted profit margins will allow companies to better cover their costs, attract investment and retain financial stability protecting consumers into the future.”

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Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented on the matter, expressing his concerns.

Mr Francis said: “When you look at the details of this price cap, the reality is that every unit of energy a customer uses costs double what it did a few years ago. The daily standing charges customers pay have also increased – doubling in the case of electricity.

“The Energy Bills Support Scheme has also been taken away this winter, while energy firms have been allowed to increase the profits they make per customer and vulnerable households have been left wondering what will happen this winter and beyond.

“Ministers had promised to consult on tariff reform to help the households most in need and who most rely on energy to keep themselves safe. Sadly, they have abandoned plans for a social tariff consultation.

“The government seems to be running out of enthusiasm to help people get through the energy bills crisis, and it is also now running out of time to act to keep people warm this winter.”

Researchers from Imperial College London have engineered a leaf-like solar design for heightened efficiency.

This photovoltaic leaf (PV-leaf) innovation employs budget-friendly materials, igniting the potential for next-gen renewable solutions.

Experiments reveal PV-leaves generate over 10% extra electricity compared to standard solar panels, which dissipate 70% of solar energy.

I didn't know Wales had 75MW of sunlight across the whole country tbh

"Sir John Rose, the chief executive of Rolls to 2011, said that any risk that the Rolls design might not be 'best in class' would be outweighed by the overall gains that could be made by backing Rolls."

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/climate/t/295076

UK gov 2013: Offshore wind? That'll cost \ £150/MWh in 2025

UK gov 2016: OK, maybe only, ooh, £115/MWh in 2025?

UK gov 2020: Er, um, yeah it's pretty cheap…call it £62/MWh in 2025?

UK gov today: Did you see HOW CHEAP offshore wind is?!? Yeah, ikr? £44/MWh in 2025

Ref https://twitter.com/DrSimEvans/status/1687500048622395396

Oil and gas supermajors including Shell and BP are using UK influencers to push false solutions to the climate crisis and manufacture a more family friendly image, DeSmog can reveal.

The influencers have included a popular former BBC presenter, a polar explorer, and an exasperated father of five who needs a break and finds it in the form of BP’s rewards app.

The campaigns have been deployed across a number of social media platforms and are part of a global effort to give “millennials a reason to connect emotionally” with oil and gas firms, and to tackle their perception as “the bad guys”.

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Our analysis uncovered promotional material from two PR firms representing Shell, boasting of the success of their online advertising. One of the PR companies claimed that content fronted by UK inventor Colin Furze reached nearly a billion people, while another claimed that a campaign with explorer Robert Swan OBE made Shell’s audience “31 percent more likely to believe” that the oil company is “committed to cleaner fuels”.