Interesting links, articles, news and blog posts sent out to members on 23/01/25.
News: A third of the Arctic’s vast carbon sink now a source of emissions, study reveals – Guardian Online
21 January 2025, Patrick Greenfield. Critical CO2 stores held in permafrost are being released as the landscape changes with global heating, report shows:
Article: Trump vows to leave Paris climate agreement and ‘drill, baby, drill’ – BBC News Online
21 January 2025, Matt McGrath. President Donald Trump has once again vowed to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, the world’s most important effort to tackle rising temperatures:
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20px1e05w0o
News: Energy UK urges government to unlock growth through energy industry regulation – Current News
17 January 2025, Kit Million Ross. Energy industry trade group Energy UK has penned a letter to the UK prime minister Keir Starmer, urging the government to ensure reforms to energy industry regulations boost growth and productivity in the sector:
News story: Great British Energy’s start-up board appointed – Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Great British Energy and The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP
17 January 2025. Five non-executive directors have been appointed to Great British Energy’s start-up board:
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/great-british-energys-start-up-board-appointed
Article: Planet-warming gas levels rose more than ever in 2024 – BBC News Online
17 January 2025, Justin Rowlatt and Mark Poynting. Levels of the most significant planet-warming gas in our atmosphere rose more quickly than ever previously recorded last year, scientists say, leaving a key global climate target hanging by a thread:
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30dn5dn53jo
Article: How the UK’s plans for AI could derail net zero – the numbers explained – The Conversation
16 January 2025, Tom Jackson and Ian R Hodgkinson. The UK government’s goal to increase public-controlled artificial intelligence computing power twentyfold by 2030 would significantly raise electricity demand. Can renewable energy supply meet it – and still have enough left over to electrify sectors like heating and transport, which must be fully decarbonised by 2050?:
Article: Ministers pledge record £410m to support UK nuclear fusion energy – Guardian Online
16 January 2025, Jillian Ambrose. Ed Miliband says funding pledge means Britain within ‘grasping distance’ of ‘secure, clean, unlimited energy’:
News: Next steps in grid connections reform – National Energy System Operator
15 January 2025. Grid connections applications have continued to grow over the last year to the point that it is no longer possible to deliver connections reforms in parallel with the existing connections process. In 2023/24 alone, NESO received over 1,700 applications to connect to the national electricity transmission system, leaving more projects already in the queue than are required for the energy system in 2030 or even 2050:
Link: https://www.neso.energy/news/next-steps-grid-connections-reform
Article: ‘A viable business’: Rolls-Royce banking on success of small modular reactors – Guardian Online
15 January 2025, Jasper Jolly. UK firm in vanguard of companies arguing SMRs are quicker and cheaper option than large Hinkley-sized nuclear plants:
News: Cost of Sizewell C nuclear project expected to rise close to £40bn – Electricity Info
14 January 2025. Cost of Sizewell C nuclear project expected to rise close to £40bn. Final price tag for building new power plant is likely to be double 2020 estimate:
Link: https://electricityinfo.org/news/sizewell-920/
Open call for evidence: Developing an energy smart data scheme – Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
13 January 2025. Views sought on the potential for developing a Smart Data scheme in the energy sector. This call for evidence closes at 11:59pm on 10 March 2025:
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/developing-an-energy-smart-data-scheme
News: Ofgem opens consultation on removing 50MW capacity market limit – Current News
10 January 2025, Kit Million Ross. The UK’s energy regulator, Ofgem, has opened a statutory consultation on several proposed changes to the Capacity Market rules:
Link: https://www.current-news.co.uk/ofgem-consultation-removing-50mw-capacity-market-limit/
News: Campaigners accuse government of ‘lack of transparency’ over Sizewell C value – Energy Voice
8 January 2025, Jessica Mills Davies. A campaign group has urged the NAO to review the UK government’s spending assessment for the nuclear power project in Suffolk: