Political News-UK government proposes faster grid access for renewable energy

UK Secretary of Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, has proposed to address the way power plants are connected to the UK’s power grid in the hope of getting new generation, including renewable energy, connected faster.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) says in a statement: “The shake-up will help new projects waiting to get a date to feed electricity into the grid to get out of the queue, and will in particular help renewable energy projects such as wind farms.”

Currently 60 GW of new electricity generation is waiting to be connected to the grid, of which 17 GW is from renewable energy.

Under the current system, new generation, including renewable energy, has been connected on a first come first serve basis regardless of when the projects can actually start generating electricity. According to DECC, this means some windfarms, for example, were given grid connection years after they were due to start producing renewable energy.

Miliband says: “Access to the grid has been one of the key barriers to the generation of renewable energy in this country. … We need these new projects to get hooked up to the grid as soon as they are ready – both to help tackle climate change and secure our future energy supplies.

“The government will do whatever is necessary to bring about the transition to a low carbon economy and to give investors the certainty they need so that new renewable energy generation is built.”

DECC proposes three models:

* Connect and manage (socialised): Cost will be shared between all users of the network;
* Connect and manage (hybrid): A model that targets some, but not all, of the additional constraint costs on new entrant power stations;
* Connect and manage (shared cost and commitment): A model that offers the choice to new and existing power stations to commit to the network (which is helpful to the grid in terms of long term management of the system) in return for greater certainty over charges, or to opt out and be exposed to additional constraint costs.

Ofgem has already approved interim arrangements, which so far have seen 1 GW of renewable energy projects in Scotland being offered earlier connection dates. The UK government says it wants to ensure that these arrangements are put fully in place by June 2010.

Industry News- Government launches £1 million electric car infrastructure fund

At present there is very little infrastructure for charging low-carbon vehicles

The Department for Transport has launched a £1 million grant fund to encourage the installation of public infrastructure for low-carbon vehicles, including electric car recharging points.

Announced yesterday (July 22), the Infrastructure Grant Programme (IGP) is set to offer an average 50% grant for the installation of alternative refuelling infrastructure, including electric vehicle recharging, and natural gas, hydrogen and bio-methane refuelling.

The Programme is to be administered by the government's appointed low carbon vehicle delivery agency Cenex, and will run until 2011.

Rosie Snashall, electric vehicles and policy manager for the Department for Transport, said: "As our delivery partner, Cenex will leverage the demand from organisations wishing to install refuelling or recharging stations for vehicles, thus enabling them to bring down the costs of reducing carbon for everyone."

The scheme will offer funding for infrastructure hardware costs, and the cost of labour, civil engineering and ground works for each successful project Grants.Cenex said yesterday that both public and private sector applicants were welcome to apply for the scheme, and that firms of all sizes were eligible for grants.

But, speaking to New Energy Focus it added that: "applicants should also note that value for money is one of the assessment criteria and they are encouraged to maximise investment into the project before applying for a grant."

Robert Evans, chief executive of Cenex, said: "For fleet operators, the cost of installing, refuelling or recharging infrastructure has always been a barrier to switching fuel use. This programme will encourage operators to accelerate the introduction of lower-carbon technologies into the UK vehicle market, thereby helping cut the UK's total carbon emissions."

This programme follows on from a previous 30% grant scheme run by the Energy Savings Trust, that was set up to encourage the development of a nationwide network of public fuelling stations.Formed in 2005 and based at Loughborough University, Cenex is supported by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and aims to promote and stimulate the market for low carbon and fuel-cell technologies.

The organisation will run three Infrastructure Grant Programme information days over the next two months, in Edinburgh, Birmingham and Port Talbot in Wales.

Client News-MGT Power to build large biomass plant on Teesside

LARGE SCALE BIOMASS POWER PLANT TO BE BUILT ON TEESSIDE

Date: July 15^th 2009

The £500m Tees Renewable Energy Plant, located at Teesport, and being developed by British company MGT Power Limited has received consent from the British Government under Section 36 of the Electricity Act.

At 295MW capacity, the plant will generate enough electricity to meet the needs of approximately 600,000 homes and will be one of the largest-ever biomass plants to be built in the world, and one of the largest of all renewable energy projects. The Tees Renewable Energy Plant will enter commercial operation in late 2012.

Chris Moore, Director of MGT Power said: “The Government’s consent is welcome news as we are at an advanced stage with forestry establishment for fuel sourcing, and power plant procurement. We can now mandate our banks, conclude the financing and reach agreement with our preferred technology bidders. We are moving towards an early construction start with a high degree of confidence.”

He added: “Other similarly sized biomass plants are proposed in other parts of the country but our Teesport project is currently two years ahead of the pack and likely to be one of the first to be operational. It comes at a time when replacement UK energy generation capacity is urgently needed. We will continue to work closely with Redcar & Cleveland Council as well as PD Ports, the owners of Teesport, Renew Tees Valley and the local Trade Unions to complete the project. Their support and commitment to the project over the last 2 years has been invaluable. ”

The Tees Renewable Energy Plant will help to meet the Government’s environmental and renewable energy targets and add to the country’s growing need to diversify its power generation. It will create 600 jobs during the three year construction period, 150 permanent jobs during the station’s lifetime, and once operating will contribute about £30m per annum into the North East’s economy, supporting a further 300-400 jobs indirectly. It will save 1.2million tonnes of CO₂ per year and will account for 5.5% of the UK’s renewable electricity target.

David Kidney MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change said: “The Tees Renewable Energy Plant brings a range of economic and environmental benefits, not least creating new jobs at Teesport, and the use of clean technology will help reduce carbon emissions. Biomass generation, using sustainable sources, is starting to make a significant contribution to the UK’s energy market and will help us reach our renewable targets.”

The biomass feedstock for the Tees Renewable Energy Plant will be sourced from certified sustainable forestry projects developed by the MGT team and partners in North and South America and the Baltic States. These projects will provide clean burning woodchip, which delivers 95% greenhouse gas savings in comparison to coal or natural gas through the life cycle and will not use high quality land suitable for food crops.

The plant will use around 2.4m tonnes of woodchips per annum and will operate at baseload – 24 hours a day, all year round. This means the Tees Renewable Energy Plant will produce the same amount of renewable electricity over a year as a 1,000MW wind farm.

Notes to Editors:

1. MGT Power (www.mgtpower.com) was established in December 2007 to develop biomass generation projects in the UK and Europe. The management team includes Chris Moore, Ben Elsworth, Thiago Azevedo and Noel Forrest who have backgrounds in UK power generation and the supply of renewable energy feedstocks. The company’s main shareholders include Trafalgar Asset Managers and MKM Longboat. The firm’s financial advisors are Ernst & Young and engineering consultants are Pöyry Energy and PB Power. Legal advisors include Taylor Wessing, Dickinson Dees and Shadbolt.

2. The site is about 6kms east of Middlesbrough and 5kms west of Redcar. It is situated on land adjacent to the main southern dock at Teesport on the south bank of the River Tees. It has a number of advantages: available industrial zone land, suitable dockside acreage in a deep water port, good access to the National Grid and associated electrical infrastructure, excellent highly skilled local industrial workforce and contracting base, and excellent road links.

3. As a storable, concentrated energy form, wood biomass allows electricity generation 24 hours a day, all year round, in contrast to intermittent renewable sources such as wind or solar. MGT Power will use trees sustainably planted specifically for use as fuel, such as Short Rotation Forestry (eg. Eucalyptus, Pines) and Short Rotation Coppicing (eg. Willow, Poplar).

For further information & images please contact:

Paul Taylor (Taylor Keogh Communications) on +44 (0)20 3170 8466 / +44 (0)7966 782611

Client News - MGT Power Director, Ben Elsworth examines the challenges for biomass developers in the UK

The Case for Biomass

The UK is facing a challenging renewables target. By 2020, 15% of its energy must come from renewable sources – this equates to roughly 35-40% of electricity produced.

As New Power readers will know, onshore and offshore wind projects are likely to provide the bulk of thatenergy however in the last few months a rash of new biomass projects have emerged.

In the following article, Ben Elsworth* examines the issues facing biomass developers in UK.

If you would like to read more of this article please click here for the full pdf

This article appears in the latest issue of New Power UK

http://newpoweruk.com/