Interesting links, articles, news and blog posts sent out to members on 23/04/25.
News: The breaking of Britain’s National Grid – The Works in Progress
22 April 2025, Alex Chalmers. This summer Works in Progress is hosting Invisible College, a week-long residential seminar, to give people aged 18–22 a grounding in the topics most important to us: how the world got rich, what is going wrong with science today, and the political economy of housing, urbanism, and cities. Applications will close on 28th April:
Link: https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/the-breaking-of-britains-national
Article: More British households struggling with bills will resort to energy theft, campaigners say – The Guardian Online
22 April 2025, Jillian Ambrose. Annual value of gas and electricity stolen from Great Britain’s grids already estimated at £1.5bn:
Press release: Clean energy projects prioritised for grid connections – Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ofgem, National Energy System Operator and The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP
15 April 2025. Ofgem is expected to confirm the National Energy System Operator’s ambitious new plan to reform grid connections and unlock billions of investment:
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/clean-energy-projects-prioritised-for-grid-connections
Article: Octopus and its customers ask Treasury to back zonal electricity pricing – The Guardian Online
14 April 2025, Jillian Ambrose. Supplier rallies small businesses as critics say overhaul would harm development of clean energy:
Article: Gas boiler fittings outnumbered heat pumps by 15 to one in UK last year – report – The Guardian Online
10 April 2025, Fiona Harvey. Poorer households shut out of heat pump market and grants should be increased to speed up rollout, thinktank says:
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/10/gas-boilers-heat-pumps-uk-grants-report
Article: Energy demands from AI datacentres to quadruple by 2030, says report – The Guardian Online
10 April 2025, Fiona Harvey. The IEA forecast indicates a sharp rise in the requirements of AI, but said threat to the climate was ‘overstated’:
Insight: Sitting on the fence on zonal pricing – Energy Voice
9 April 2025:
Link: https://www.energyvoice.com/insights/energy-opinion/569042/sitting-on-the-fence-on-zonal-pricing/
Press release: Ofgem super-charging clean power storage for first time in 40 years – Ofgem
8 April 2025. A new era for renewable power and energy security begins on 8 April as Ofgem launches a new cap and floor investment support scheme, unlocking billions in funding to build major Long Duration Electricity Storage projects for the first time in 40 years:
Link: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-release/ofgem-super-charging-clean-power-storage-first-time-40-years
Article: Amazon forest felled to build road for climate summit – BBC News Online
12 March 2025, Ione Wells. A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém:
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9vy191rgn1o
Article: Three things we learnt from the CCC’s 7th Carbon Budget about Labour’s decarbonisation challenges – Politics Home
7 March 2025, OFTEC. “The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has an important role in providing independent, evidence-based advice to governments. However, its recommendations have historically been more ambitious than what successive governments have been willing or able to implement. While the CCC’s bold proposals often set the direction, they are not always fully embraced due to financial, practical, and political constraints”: