Industry News Roundup February 2020
Friday 21/02 – The government announces plans to phase out the sale of house coal and wet wood for domestic burning in England between 2021 and 2023. Arup is appointed by Crown Estate Scotland as specialist reviewers for the upcoming first round of ScotWind leasing later this year.
Thursday 20/02 – The Department of Transport launches a consultation on bringing the ban for new ICE cars forward to 2035 from its current date of 2040. Shell announces that global liquefied natural gas demand is expected to double to 700mn tonnes by 2040. Heathrow announces that it has become one of the world’s first major aviation hubs to become carbon neutral for its infrastructure and the first to target zero carbon by the mid-2030s. National Grid ESO issues a working group consultation to set generators’ TNUoS residual to zero.
Wednesday 19/02 – West Yorkshire Combined Authority and the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership announce they are carrying out a study on how the Leeds City region can meet net zero by 2038 or sooner. It is revealed that four in ten MSPs believe renewable energy, more than any other sector, has the highest growth potential for the next five years.
Tuesday 18/02 – Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak confirms that the Budget will still be go ahead on 11 March. BEIS announced £90mn for projects including hydrogen plants and for local energy projects. The government publishes details of the successful projects for Phase 2 of the Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator programme. Cornwall Insight was named as a partner on project Rewire-NW.
Monday 17/02 – Business and Energy Secretary and COP26 President Alok Sharma announces that the government is set to spend £1.2bn to build a supercomputer which will look to improve severe weather and climate forecasting. Shell Energy Europe announces the installation of Europe’s “biggest” battery project. An independent analysis by academics from Imperial College London for Drax Electric Insights found that over the decade, the transition to renewables led to a 107mn metric tonne reduction in annual carbon emissions from Britain’s power sector.
Friday 14/02 – The UK Green Building Council launches its catalogue of net zero case studies, profiling projects that demonstrate innovative approaches that align with UKGBC’s net zero carbon buildings framework. The online catalogue aims to provide organisations with practical examples of the methods needed to encourage and deliver a net zero carbon built environment, across a wide variety of building types.
Thursday 13/02– As part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s reshuffle, Chancellor Sajid Javid resigns and Andrea Leadsom is sacked as Business Secretary, replaced with Alok Sharma. Javid was replaced as Chancellor with former Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak. Sharma was also appointed as Minister for COP26, filling the post left vacant for two weeks after the sacking of Claire Perry O’Neill.
Wednesday 12/02– Transport Secretary Grant Shapps reveals on BBC Radio 5 Live that the ban on sales of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars could be brought forward to 2032. The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures announces that it has officially reached more than 1,000 supporters globally for its recommendations, acknowledging that climate change presents a financial risk.
Tuesday 11/02 – Data published by the International Energy Agency reveals that, despite widespread predictions of an increase, global energy-related CO2 emissions stopped growing in 2019. National Grid ESO announces that GB’s electricity system in January was the greenest ever on record, where mild temperatures led to the lowest ever average carbon intensity, totalling 209CO2kWh.
Monday 10/02 – The European Environment Agency publishes several maps illustrating how drought, heavy rain and flooding, forest fires and sea-level rise could affect regions in Europe. NorthConnect confirms it has issued an invitation to tender for the enabling works package at the Fourfields site near Peterhead.
Friday 07/02 – The T-1 Capacity Market (the scheme which guarantees the UK’s security of supply) auction provisionally clears at £1.00/kW/year, and the total quantity of de-rated capacity procured was 1024.409MW. The BBC reports that the government is considering shifting the burden of climate policies onto taxpayers rather than energy consumers
Thursday 06/02– BEIS launches an open consultation regarding the development of a regulatory framework for heat networks, potentially similar to how Ofgem regulates energy markets. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announces that local authorities are now able to apply to become the UK’s first all-electric bus town. Europe installed 3.6GW of new offshore wind capacity in 2019, according to statistics released by WindEurope.
Wednesday 05/02– The government announces it is commissioning the Competition and Markets Authority to publish an annual state of UK competition report. Ofgem urges National Grid Electricity System Operator to provide more clarity in its draft 2020-21 Forward Plan.
Tuesday 04/02 – In his UN climate conference COP26 launch speech Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces the UK is to bring forward the date for the banning of new petrol and diesel car sales from 2040 to 2035. The Prime Minister also announces the government is consulting on bringing forward the ban on coal power from 2025 to 2024. Energy UK sets out 14 recommendations for the upcoming Energy White Paper and Budget.
Monday 03/02 – The European Commission publishes a document indicating that the UK will leave the internal energy market – this could result in energy price rises. A new Policy Tracker by Green Alliance finds that the UK is currently off track in meeting its own climate targets, where action that leads to a reduction of at least 313MtCO2 equivalent over the fifth carbon budget period (legal targets set for 2028-2032) will need to be taken this year for the UK to meet its net zero goals.
Written By Graham Paul
