So an AGR can have a 45 year life

EDF has recently announced that both reactors at Dungeness B will continue operating until 2028, a life extension of 10 years. The reactors were commissioned in 1983 and 1985 - something I remember well as it came as a great relief to the CEGB after years of delay. This extension has been enabled by a £150M investment programme and means that there should be operational overlap with Hinkley Point C which is expected to be commissioned in 2023.

Although we're talking different technologies it does seem to me to make Germany's decision to shut its nuclear stations down as part of the Energiewende process appear ever more bizarre.

Sustainable Growth?

I know that we've visited Limits to Growth a number of times, all apparently prematurely, but surely at some point the fact that we live on a finite planet IS going to matter.

That makes me cast a rather jaundiced eye  and ear upon the expert panel discussion at Davos - very brief summary here.

And Paul Polman's "I can have my cake and eat it too" is frighteningly trite.

Three Minutes to Midnight

For the first time in three years the hands on the Doomsday Clock have shifted. They have been moved closer to midnight - just three minutes away. This was recently announced on the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists website.

"In 2015, unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity, and world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe". Some indictment!

The last time the clock was set this close to midnight was in 1983 when US-Soviet relations were glacial. What I find really worrying is the quantum of the movement decided upon by the Science and Securities Board - two full minutes. That suggests a view of the situational deterioration accelerating. The last change was a one minute move from six to five before midnight in 2012.

Walt Patterson - What Governments Must Do

I've always had a soft spot for Walt Patterson - he can produce the most thought provoking of articles and think-pieces. One such is his recent post to RenewEconomy. I won't summarise it - just ask to to click on the link and read it.

It's Not Price, It's Capacity

Let me remind you of this. In their dash for populist headlines about the poor British consumer being robbed by wicked utility companies our dear leaders seem to have forgotten that there is a need for investment - in new generation capacity, in distribution and transmission hardware, in control systems. Companies will only do this if they see that they will be able to make a decent return on that investment. Kicking them because they don't follow spot market prices down (notice that there's never an exhortation to follow them up!) won't help that situation. (And those self same politicians seem to overlook the fact that energy tends to be bought forward on long term contracts - a good way of reducing volatility - but, of course, not immediately reflective of spot prices).

It's capacity that matters - not the consumer's bill.

(Oh, and perhaps someone could look up the meaning of "crisis" before chuntering on about "the cost of living crisis").

Another Reason for not Voting UKIP

EDIE last week reported that UKIP want to scrap the Climate Change Act. Apparently the party's energy spokesman, one Roger Helmer, thinks that climate change is still "open to question" claiming that there "hasn't been any global warming for the last 18 years". Perhaps a quick glance at a New Statesman profile of him would be worth while. I am staggered that people actually vote for him.