Behind the steel and concrete, even the most familiar energy technologies rely on extracting metals to deliver high performance. Those metals can be expensive to source, globally concentrated and in growing demand by competing industries. Are they a risk factor?…
Longread
Analysis, interviews, thought leadership
What’s our European nuclear future? Options on exiting Euratom
by New Power • • Comments Off
Brexit is likely to be more disruptive to our existing nuclear fuel cycle businesses – and hence existing reactors – than our new-build programme An amendment to the Brexit bill that would see the UK retain its membership of…
Storage ‘should be defined as load, not generation’
by New Power • • Comments Off
Ofgem and BEIS have taken the wrong approach in defining storage as generation, according to Endeco chief executive Michael Phelan. In an interview with New Power Report Phelan said storage should have its own definition. But if it had to…
Hydrogen grid? Think about power – and gas – needs, says energy systems expert
by New Power • • Comments Off
Providing consumers with low-carbon heat will require major change even if the solution keeps some part of the existing gas infrastructure, Jeff Douglas, strategy manager at the Energy Systems Catapult, told New Power. In a wide-ranging interview about the future…
‘National debate’ needed as some consumers will lose gas option
by New Power • • Comments Off
Policymakers have to start a national conversation about how to decarbonise heat, says Jeff Douglas, strategy manager at the Energy Systems Catapult, as it will eventually restrict choices for consumers. The comments came in an interview with New Power about…
Uniper’s UK chair Felix Lerch talks about restructuring and repositioning the company
by New Power • • Comments Off
Job losses at Uniper, the fossil fuel and commodities company spun out of E.On, will continue until the end of the year, admits UK chair Felix Lerch. He told New Power in a wide-ranging interview that streamlining the company is…
UK renewables: expect mergers and acquisitions, says investor Foresight
by New Power • • Comments Off
There will be major consolidation in the renewables sector in the UK over the next couple of years, according to Dan Wells, a partner in the infrastructure team at investment managers Foresight. Developers and EPC contractors have held projects on their…
Demand Turn-Up: has procuring less than planned “killed it before it got going”?
by New Power • • Comments Off
Demand Turn-Up has been “killed before it got going”, an industry member told New Power after the results of National Grid’s fixed tender for the service were announced. In the tender, 138.6MW of fixed volume was accepted from tenders totalling…
OPINION: For industry codes, form should follow function and the customer comes first
by New Power • • Comments Off
Tony Thornton, head of transformation at Gemserv, says a single Retail Energy Code could help support a simplified consumer-centric code governance model, but it must be implemented around a complex reform programme already under way. Aligning codes to function is a…
Intergen’s Mark Somerset: Capacity Market must deliver large plant this year
by New Power • • Comments Off
It the Capacity Market does not deliver large CCGT this year international investors could walk away, Intergen’s Mark Somerset warned New Power. In a wide ranging interview the independent generator’s vice president of development for the EMEA region said, “People look…