After months of silence, I’ve had two cold calls about the state of microgeneration in recent weeks. I don’t really work on the details of the policy anymore so I did wonder why everyone’s getting excited all of a sudden. However I think it might have something to do with this: another consultation document.
Read more on The times they are a-changin’…
From yesterday’s Observer:
In fact, Sellafield is a classic illustration of the failure of British industry. We were pioneers of nuclear power but in our desire to build our own atomic weapons, failed abysmally when it came to developing and managing our own civil reactors and reprocessing plants.
Read more on Sellafield…
Three words: backyard nuclear power.
To be honest, I can’t tell if this is crazy good or crazy bad. On the one hand, compact self-contained nukes would give better output – more of it and more predictable – than similarly distributed renewables. But still, the units are buried underground and every 7 to 10 years, a lorry full of fresh uranium comes round to your house (well more realistically your local factory, industrial estate etc.), digs up the reactor to refuel it, and takes away the old waste. Although the transportation of nuclear materials has been relatively safe to date, I wonder how things change when you start shipping around lots of little containers rather than a few big loads (ignoring medical isotopes).
Read more on Crazy idea of the week…
It looks as though the new Energy and Climate department is getting off on the right foot. Buried part way down this article is a quote from the minister saying that the Energy Bill will be amended to incorporate a feed-in tariff for microgeneration. Finally.
Read more on A promising start…
After years of being shoehorned into BERR and Defra, the BBC is reporting that energy and climate issues are to be tackled by a new ministry led by Ed Miliband. Very sensible move and I’ll be keen to see how effective it will be in tying together the different policy threads.
Read more on No longer the bridesmaid…
Also posted in Policy | Tagged climatechange, energy
The government has launched yet another energy policy consultation and Ashley Seager hit the nail on the head: why more talk? I’ve lost track of the number of energy consultations and white papers since Labour came to power but I’m pretty sure I’d need both hands and feet to count them.
Read more on Talk, talk, talk…
