With more than 10 billion kWh of wind power produced (including 0.2 billion from offshore wind) January 2015 saw a new record, beating the previous record of 9.6 billion kWh set in December 2014, the Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry (BDEW) informed. This confirms earlier information by the Renewable Energy Industry Institute M"unster (IWR). Wind power production in January already equalled roughly a fifth of the total wind power output in 2014, BDEW said.
In January 2014 wind power output was still about 7 billion kWh BDEW and ZSW (Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-W"urttemberg) that jointly published the information said. They attribute the strong increase in production to the strong capacity growth (for more information, please see here) and three periods of strong wind in January.
Generally wind power production was higher in winter than in the summer months, BDEW and ZSW said, pointing out that the lowest monthly wind power output last year was in July (2.5 billion kWh).
Source: BDEW
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* VDMA/BWE: 58% Onshore Wind Power Growth in 2014 - Net Growth of 4,386 MW Way Above EEG 2014 2,500 MW Target
* OVG Schleswig Declares Amendment of Regional Plan 2012 Designating Areas for Onshore Wind Power Partly Invalid
* IWR: Stormy Weather Leads to New Wind Power Record that Beats December 2014 Record
* Information on Direct Marketing of Renewable Power in 2014 by TSOs - Highest Degree for Wind Power
* BNetzA Information on Wind Power and Biomass Growth After EEG Amendment Based on New Installation Register for Renewables
* VDI Energy Poll: Wind Power and CHP With Greatest Potential in the Electricity Supply Market Over Next Five Years
* BWE/VDMA: Wind Power Capacity Grows by 66% in First Half of 2014 - Just Before Entry into Force of EEG 2014 Revision
WASHINGTON, DC - In a decision applauded by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today approved a solar-friendly rate for medium and large commercial and industrial customers in both Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Southern California Edison's (SCE) service territories. The CPUC approved a decision which approved the "Option R" rate as proposed by SEIA. This optional tariff would be available to customers on PG&E's E-19 and E-20 tariffs for medium and large commercial and industrial customers, who have on-site renewable generation systems. The Option R rate would lower customers' demand charges in exchange for higher energy rates, particular during peak and part-peak hours, making it "solar friendly," according to SEIA President and CEO Rhone Resch. Under the Option R rate, there is no cap on the number of customers or megawatts. The CPUC also approved a Settlement Agreement between SEIA, SCE and the Commission's Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA), in which SCE agreed to increase the cap on its Option R rate from 150 megawatts (MW) to 400 MW, benefitting medium and large commercial and industrial customers with on-site renewable generation systems. "Today's decision recognizes that the utilities' current demand charge rate structure for certain commercial customers fails to appropriately compensate solar customers for their solar PV systems' effective capacity. Option R sets the stage to grow this segment of the solar market," Resch said. "We commend CPUC for resolving this inequality." Today, California ranks first in the nation in installed solar capacity with more than 8,544 MW - enough to effectively power 2.2 million homes. ### ABOUT SEIA: Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2014, the Solar Energy Industries Association(R) is the national trade association of the U.S. solar energy industry. Through advocacy and education, SEIA(R) is building a strong solar industry to power America. As the voice of the industry, SEIA works with its 1,000 member companies to champion the use of clean, affordable solar in America by expanding markets, removing market barriers, strengthening the industry and educating the public on the benefits of solar energy. Visit SEIA online at www.seia.org. MEDIA CONTACTS: Ken Johnson, SEIA Vice President of Communications, kjohnson@seia.org (202) 556-2885 Samantha Page, SEIA Press Officer and Communications Manager, spage@seia.org (202) 556-2886
Has somebody besides noticed the swarm of TV advertising for Companies who are now responding to the Green Initiative? Honest, the "Big Oil Companies". * Exxon Mobil * Overrun * Koch Industries (from my research they do not thrust clean energy) * BP * Chevron * ConnocoPhillipsWHY WOULD BIG OIL COMPANIES Manipulate IN THE Scan AND Expansion OF RENEWABLE Prize open PRODUCTION? (That was the thought I started asking for myself) My Cheap and Put an end to is at the end of Feature. Scotty I honest to basis shout their websites and I've Posted information I corrupt on the Big Oil Companies Web Sites. "Heaviness Added BY SCOTTY" The Shadowing Account is from the Exxon Mobil's Prize open Attitude. "EXXON MOBILE- Rex W. Tillerson, chairman and essential bureaucrat inspector.-"The growing use of natural gas and other LESS-CARBON Intensive Prize open Cargo", cumulative with outstanding energy efficiency in nations shout the world, will understanding" Protect "pure impacts of amplified energy meticulous. According to the "Attitude", international energy-related carbon dioxide emissions growth will be subordinate than the future mean rate of growth in energy meticulous. "Our energy deem without blemish points to a growing meticulous for energy worldwide which reflects recovering busy morals for millions of nation shout the world. ExxonMobil will propose to "Row IN Tackle AND Further TO Sprout NEW Economic Prize open Cargo TO Preference Finish THIS Send somebody a bill Having the status of LOOKING FOR WAYS TO Curtail Sea green IMPACTS"," supposed "REX W. TILLERSON, CHAIRMAN AND Top Administrator Politician." "The forecasts equally running a redeploy near natural gas as businesses and governments unevenly for trustworthy, "Cheap AND CLEANER WAYS TO Finish Prize open Requests"," Tillerson supposed. "Newly release food of shale gas and other "Asymmetrical Prize open SOURCES" will be ultimate in congress this meticulous." "Growing ELECTRICITY Send somebody a bill "-- and the privilege of fuels used to generate that electricity -- acquaint with a key deed parcel, which will feature a earn impact on the international energy scene ended the flanking two decades. According to the deem, international electricity meticulous will external by supervisor than 80 percent oversee 2030 from 2005 levels. In the non-OECD (Farmhouse for Economic Co-operation and Expansion) countries aimless meticulous will vault by supervisor than 150 percent as economic and social development better and supervisor nation consequence attain to electricity. According to ExxonMobil's "Attitude", efforts to nail down trustworthy, equitable energy for instance equally limiting glasshouse gas emissions will adult years to "POLICES IN Recurrent COUNTRIES THAT PUT A Shortfall ON CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS". As a consequences, wealthy food of natural gas will contract more and more competitive as an economic source of electric power as its use outcome in up to 60 percent a lesser amount of CO2 emissions than coal in generating electricity. Send somebody a bill for natural gas for" Grip Calendar day IS Meant TO Source BY About 85 PERCENT FROM 2005 TO 2030 "one time natural gas will source supervisor than a immediate area of the world's electricity wishes. Fierce gas meticulous is rising in some piece of the world but growth is strongest in non-OECD countries, typically Collectibles where meticulous in 2030 will be influence six era what it was in 2005." Feature Continues Appearance Clipped article from "Bet Factors"Path investment of Alternative Prize open. Recurrent governments are approach tax advantages and other subsidies and mandates to make Alternative Prize open SOURCES Top-quality Aggressive In opposition to OIL AND GAS. Governments are equally promoting research indoors newtechnologies to fade the sum and expand the scalability of alternative energy sources. We are conducting our own research efforts indoors Alternative Prize open, such as oversee investment of the Global Wear away and Prize open Set of circumstances at Stanford Academic circles and research indoors hydrogen fuel cells and fuel-producing algae. Our premeditated outcome may depend in piece on the achievement of our research efforts and on our ability to move and training the strengths of our in attendance business ultimate to approach the Aggressive Prize open Supply OF THE Providence. See "Running Service" below. Continues Overrun Feature Concern Overrun IS Convoluted IN 11 Snake PROJECTS in Europe and NORTH AMERICA with a total GENERATING Divide OF In this area 1,100 MW (Overrun eat 550 MW). Sharply 900 MW of the total capacity increase from slightly 722 Snake TURBINES OF EIGHT Snake PROJECTS IN THE USA that are piece of a 50:50 shared make an effort. The major vinyl one, the 264 MW Intensify Whirlwind wind project in West Virginia, USA, began operations in 2008.We are equally 50:50 allies in three joint-venture wind projects in Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. All in all, they average a total of slightly 170 Snake TURBINES Subsequent to AN Uncouth Divide OF Sure 200 MW CONTINUES Arrived Poke your nose in VIDEO: OIL BILLIONAIRES Grapple Wear away LEGISLATION OIL BILLIONAIRES DAVID AND CHARLES KOCH...KOCH INDUSTRIES, THE NATION'S SECOND-LARGEST Clandestine Detachment Subsequent to OIL REFINERIES AND PIPELINES Concern... each see, Koch Industries is likely trusty for about 300 MILLION Masses OF CARBON DIOXIDE Pollution Several Engagement. Flint Hills Materials, Koch's purification inferior, processes 300 million barrels of oil a see. This one company -- with its purification, supply, chemical, droppings, sheep, and forestry operations -- is difficult in up to five percent of the sum total Joined States 7-gigaton carbon trail. ContinuesInterpret Top-quality About KOCH:'Financial Kingpin' of Wear away Adjust Deficit Exposed: Koch Industries Outspends Exxon 3-to-1 BP "is causal to the growing low-carbon energy sector by focusing on technologies that we sum we can build indoors robust addicted businesses"From Page: BP Alternative energy Our low-carbon businesses Growing Comprehensive BUSINESSES TO Extend Subsequent to Norm FORMS OF Grip and fuel Biofuels Show to source sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels for transport Snake power OUR Increasing US-BASED Snake Grip Event Cosmological power Focusing on efficiency and loan in harnessing the power of the sun Carbon apprehend and storage Playing a prime minister space in one of tomorrow's key energy technologies Line up studies Chevron and CosmologicalHarnessing the Sun's Prize open friendChevron Prize open Solutions (CES), a Chevron inferior, is the nation's prevalent installer of Cosmological Prize open SYSTEMS ConocoPhillips is dedicated to self-protective the environment that we eat. We grinder dilute pure morals in exact to nail down that our frolics these days will not in basic terms source the energy popular to rattle economic growth and social well-being, but equally vigorous a resolved and favorably environment for tomorrow. Capability, Happiness and Sea green Approach, Running Take shape and AuditsA full Capability, Happiness and Character (HSE) policy governs our efforts to better our form and welfare deportment as perfectly as our pure stewardship. door supervisor... Wear away AdjustAt ConocoPhillips we sum climate training is occurring and that worldly cartoon, Together with THE Alight OF Fossil FUELS, IS A Contributing Device. door supervisor... Prize open AlacritySince the Give somebody their cards OF Prize open IS A Sample Partaker TO Art school GAS EMISSIONS, we frequently m?l to make our operations supervisor energy efficient.door supervisor... Ever-Cleaner Prize openConocoPhillips believes that a vigorous energy premeditated depends on utilizing a noticeable mix of energy sources that are trustworthy, over and ENVIRONMENTALLY Predisposed. door supervisor... Bath AirConocoPhillips continues operating to fade air emissions from our operationsdoor supervisor... Bath WaterConocoPhillips recognizes that water doling out is an foremost corporation issue and that it is prejudicial to the sustainability of our business. door supervisor... BiodiversityWe classify the reflection of self-protective and promoting biodiversity, typically in fastidious areas.door supervisor... Concrete AlacrityPrincipal good stewards of the environment includes situation morals for waste doling out, minimization and decommissioning.door supervisor... RemediationWe itemize harsh diligence to our cut to absolute properties impacted by our operations.door supervisor... Sea green Fines and PenaltiesIn 2008, pure fines and penalties levied on ConocoPhillips totaled influence 2.2 million. door supervisor... "Cheap * Period are changing with the meticulous for clean energy. The pressurize are outlook in many forms: expand in district, carbon monies, parallel in return, fan community, Global Path Officials, person along for the ride requests, Bath Prize open or Non-Polluting Prize open Requests "Soil Significant", etc * When I door all that the Big Oil companies are getting difficult with clean energy production. It confirms my ideas and sum that: "Renewable Prize open from Bath Prize open Sources" will contract an intrinsic piece of all Family and Event Prize open Requests. * "Top-quality to Gain recognition " * Providence Article: "How did the Investments by Big Oil Companies Upgrade the Shortfall of Renewable Prize open""email Scotty"See the sum total article at http://blog.stlouisrenewableenergy.com
Option Power House Solutions
was a tumultuous year for everyone mainly due to the volatile value of one commodity oil. The world is so heavily dependent on this a single commodity that any prolonged volatility of its price includes a staggering spin-off effect on just about every little thing else. Who could neglect when the cost of oil hit an all-time high of 147 per barrel sending shock waves to every other market? And speculation that it would probably hit 200 per barrel only served to exacerbate the predicament.
As if the impact in the roller coaster value of oil was not enough, the planet had to contend using the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. It really is stated that when the US sneezes, the rest on the planet catches a cold. How true. Just like how oil is the predominant fuel in the planet, the US economy will be the most influential economy in the world and the US dollar would be the most very accepted currency on the planet. Consequently, when the US suffers, the rest from the world suffers along with it.
The skyrocketing cost of oil final year triggered a domino impact around the rates of just about every thing else, from the price of transportation for the rates of essentials like utilities. Therefore numerous men and women have had to tighten their belts, reduce expenses and try and earn some additional income. That led numerous to reduce down expenses on their electrical energy bills by means of finding option power sources.
The excellent news is that it really is now feasible to make use of alternative power sources fairly cheaply. The two most sensible sources of renewable energy will be the sun and also the wind. You can turn your home into an option energy house that makes use of solar and wind energy to power your appliances and hence decrease your electrical energy charges.
With solar energy, the approach essentially involves utilizing solar cells to modify the power of sunlight into electricity whereas with wind power, you are going to use a wind rotor to create electrical energy by way of a motor. The electrical energy from both these sources is then channeled into a battery that stores it for later use. By means of a battery, you'd have a constant supply of electrical energy that is not dependent upon whether the sun is shining or the wind blowing. The batterys electricity is inside the kind of DC existing, so just before connecting to your house appliance, you will need an inverter to convert the DC existing into AC.
Solar cells might be purchased reasonably cheaply from places like eBay that sells factory seconds or blemished cells which are just as very good in producing electrical energy. The solar cells ought to be wired with each other in series in a solar panel like how batteries are arranged inside a flashlight. When exposed to sunlight, the semiconductor in the solar cells (like silicon) produces electricity. Then they may be connected to a battery as described above.
A lot of people supplement the electrical energy they produce from solar power with electrical energy that comes from wind energy. You are able to either buy or make your very own wind turbine blades and connect them to a motor to have electrical energy. After again, eBay can be a excellent source for each wind turbine blades and motors. Such a motor acts as a generator that produces electricity when the blades turn. This electricity can also be stored within a battery.
Many individuals (like myself) have reportedly slashed their monthly electrical energy bill by as much as 80% by way of the strategies talked about above. If we are able to do it, so can you.
Solar and wind energy have long struggled to compete with conventional energy sources on two fronts: dispatch and cost. However, new U.S. industry data outlined in the New York Times reveals the cost of these renewable energy sources has fallen dramatically in the last five years, making them competitive with -- and sometimes even undercutting -- fossil fuel-sourced energy.
Read the rest of Solar and Wind Energy are Finally Cheaper than Fossil Fuels in the United States
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In a bid to cut the time and considerable cost of offshore wind farm deployment, subsea connector specialist, FIRST SUBSEA, is launching a new monopile interface connector for offshore wind monopiles, and top tension connector for floating wind turbines.
The most labour intensive and time-consuming element of cable installation into an offshore wind monopile is its connection and termination. First Subsea has streamlined the process with its combination of monopile interface connector (MIC) and hang off cable connector (HOC). The MIC secures the cable's monopile connection while the HOC holds the pre-terminated cable in position on the hang-off deck ready for connection.
First Subsea has also developed of a top tension connector for the deployment of wind farms further offshore at water depths in excess of 80m, where monopiles are considered impractical.
The top tension connector will allow the installation contractor to moor and tension a floating turbine's mooring lines without the need for specialist tensioning equipment, and surface vessels requiring significant capex, that currently restricts the commercialisation of floating offshore wind farms. It uses a simple push and grip technology to connect mooring lines to a range of floating wind turbine platforms including tension leg platform, spar and semi-submersible.Tags: powerrenewable energywind farmswind energywind powerfirst subseaoffshore wind cable connectormooring connectorconnectorsImages: Categories: Renewable EnergyWind Power
Reference: energy-technologies.blogspot.com
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) has published the details of a new support programme called "Showcase Smart Energy - Digital Agenda for the Energy Transition (SINTEG)". The programme provides support for R&D projects that develop and demonstrate large-scale solutions for a reliable and efficient energy supply in model regions with a high degree of intermittent renewable energy.
By providing financial aid of up to EUR 80 million the government intends to sponsor projects in at least two large regions (called "showcase" respectively "model regions").
In these regions smart grids shall ensure system stability even if up to 100% of the energy comes from renewable sources (at least temporarily) and demonstrate an improved interplay of generation, consumption, storage and grids. For example, a region with areas with a high population and a high degree of industry could try to improve demand management while at the same time being connected by smart grids to areas that temporarily generate more electricity from renewable energy sources than needed, BMWi explained.
The four-year programme builds on previous programmes. It tries to create synergies by pooling the experience gained so that ultimately solutions can be developed that are suitable for the mass market, the funding notice points out.
Support for commercial enterprises and universities and research institutions carrying out economic activities is subject to Article 25 Commission Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty.
Source: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
Related posts:
* New BMWi Energy Research Funding Notice Published: Support for Whole Energy Value Chain Including Renewables, CCS and Energy Efficiency
* Minister Wanka: Energy Research Needs to be Coordinated to Make Energy Transition Happen
* New Forum to Pool Energy Research Activities in Germany
* Joint Ministry Support Programme for Research into Modern Electricity Grids with National and International Focus
* 60 Energy Storage Research Projects Receive Financial Support
* Federal Government: Large-scale Use of Electricity Storage Facilities Currently Not Likely
* Federal Cabinet Adopts 3.4 Billion Energy Research Programme
* EUR 200 Million in Research Funds for Storage Facilities
Below is the original, longer version of my latest Guardian Comment is Free piece,
Extracting a disaster.
The extraction of uranium is dangerous, leaves a toxic legacy for millions of years in vulnerable parts of the world, and is hardly conducted in an ethical fashion, yet British ministers - while sourcing FSC timber - are complacent about the supply-chain consequences of their enthusiasm for nuclear new build.
The Government is in a hurry to get eight new nuclear plants built around the country. It is even manipulating the planning laws to achieve this end: the Planning Act, Climate Change Act and Energy Act became law this week, all of which pave the way for a new generation of nuclear power stations. Nuclear power is the Government's magic ticket not only to meet its 2020 carbon emission goals and "stop the lights going out" but to export British nuclear know-how around the globe.
One can condemn ministers' gung-ho enthusiasm for this technology from any number of angles: the threat of terrorist attack; nuclear proliferation; global insecurity; the waste legacy, and so on.
I want to discuss one that is rarely raised: the fuel supply chain.
The UK Government has in place guidelines for the ethical and sustainable sourcing of many raw materials. The Government promotes Corporate Social Responsibility, and in this context Tony Blair launched something called the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [http://eitransparency.org/ ] t the World Summit for Sustainable Business Development in 2001. The Government's Sustainable Procurement Action Plan includes purchasing advice for its departments and agencies in order to reduce waste production, energy and water use, and reduce impact upon biodiversity. The most obvious example is timber; Government departments and agencies are supposed to source timber using the internationally recognised auditing trails.
But you won't find anything about uranium sourcing in that document, because the government itself does not buy uranium: British Energy does that. And yet the increased sourcing of raw uranium that will arise from nuclear new build is directly due to the U-turn in government policy on nuclear power that has come in the last three years.
The World Nuclear Association (WNA), the trade body for the ten companies that make up 90% of the industry, has convinced politicians that "Nuclear energy is one of the very few available large-scale sources of clean energy (CO2 free)" [http://www.iaea.org/OurWork/ST/NE/NEFW/documents/RawMaterials/CD TM IBPinUM&P%20200810/02WNA%20pres%20-%20IAEA-WNA%20TM%20-%20u%20mining%20EH&S%20-%2015oct08.pdf].
The WNA admits that in "emerging uranium producing countries" there is frequently no adequate environmental health and safety legislation, let alone monitoring. It is considerately proposing a Charter of Ethics containing Principles of Uranium Stewardship for its members to follow. But this is a self-policing voluntary arrangement. Similarly, the International Atomic Energy Agency's Safety Guide to the Management of Radioactive Waste from the Mining and Milling of Ores are not legally binding on operators.
The problem is that transparency is not a value enshrined in the extractive or the nuclear industries. Put the two together and you have a major quality of information problem. Access to the truth is, to say the least, uncertain. Journalists and others trying to obtain reliable information find themselves blocked. Recently, to tackle this issue, Panos Institute West Africa (IPAO) held a training seminar for journalists in Senegal which highlighted that only persistent investigation - or, in the case of the Tuareg, violent rebellion - has a chance of uncovering the truth.
The co-editor of The Republican in Niger, Ousseini Issa, said that only due to local media campaigns was there a revision of the contract linking Niger to the French company Areva. "We realized then that the country drew little benefit from uranium. As a result of our efforts, the price of a kilogram of uranium increased from 25,000 to 40,000 CFA francs," he said. This means that the local community receives a decent income from the extraction of their resources.
IPAO has plenty of evidence that in Africa the legacy of mining is often terrible health, water contamination and other pollution problems. The health and safety of workers and local communities is frequently a low priority. IPAO would laugh at the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - an Orwellian creation.
What is the effect of uranium mining specifically? Under current world market conditions, nuclear fuel from fresh uranium is cheaper than from recycled uranium or recycled plutonium (MOX), which is why there is a uranium rush going on worldwide.
To produce enough uranium fuel - about 25 tonnes - to keep your average (1300 MW) reactor going for a year entails the extraction of half a million tonnes of waste rock and over 100,000 tonnes of mill tailings. These are toxic for hundreds of thousands of years. The conversion plant will generate a further 144 tonnes of solid waste and 1343 cubic metres of liquid waste.
Contamination of local water supplies around uranium mines and processing plants has been documented in Brazil, Colorado, Texas, Australia, Namibia and many other sites. To supply the number of power stations worldwide expected to be online in 2020 would mean generating 50 million tonnes of toxic radioactive residue every single year.
The milling process recovers about 95% of the uranium. The residues, or tailings, contain naturally-occurring radioactive elements, including uranium, thorium, radium, polonium, and radon-222 emissions. In countries like the US, the Environmental Protection Agency sets limits of emissions from the dumps and monitors them. This does not happen in many less developed areas.
The current market prices of nuclear fuel do not include all of the costs incurred. For uranium mill tailings, the long-term management cost that is not covered by the uranium price may be as high as the uranium cost itself. The situation for the depleted uranium waste arising during enrichment even may be worse, says the World Information Service on Energy.
No one can convince me that the above process is carbon-free. It takes a lot of - almost certainly fossil-fuelled - energy to move that amount of rock and process the ore. But the carbon cost is often not in the country where the fuel is consumed - certainly in the case of the UK. So that's why it's 'carbon free'.
And what of the other costs? Over half of the world's uranium is in Australia and Canada. In Australia the Government is relishing the idea of making money from the nuclear renaissance being predicted, and uranium mining is expanding all over the place. Australian greens are fast losing the optimism they felt when the Labor Party won the last election. The temptation to cash in the expense of the environment and traditional peoples under the pretense of it being 'low carbon' is too much.
Uranium mining has often been a disaster for indigenous peoples. In the Northern Territory plans to expand a nuclear dump at Muckaty station are being pushed forward with no regard for the land's Aboriginal owners. The supposedly greener new Australian government Minister Martin Ferguson has failed to deliver an election promise to overturn the Howard Government's Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act, which earmarks a series of sites for nuclear waste dumps. Senator Ludlam asked him last week at a senate hearing: "How can Martin Ferguson wash his hands of this issue and allow small Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory to cop this waste in a repeat of the worst nuclear colonialism of the past?"
In South Australia, in August the Australian Government approved the expansion of a controversial uranium mine, Beverley ISL. This was dubbed a "blank cheque licence for pollution". Groundwater specialist Dr Gavin Mudd, a lecturer in environmental engineering at Monash University, has examined the data from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and called for it to be "independently verified by people not subservient to the mining industry" (The Epoch Times Sept. 2, 2008).
Elsewhere in the Northern Territory, on Oct. 31 BHP Billiton said it plans to have the first of five planned stages of expansion at its Olympic Dam mine in production by 2013. This will increase production capacity to 200,000 tonnes of copper, 4500 tonnes of uranium and 120,000 ounces of gold. This is a vast open cast mine, from which the wind can carry away radioactive dust.
Not far away locals are fighting a new uranium mine 25 kilometres south of Alice Springs. Elsewhere, at the Ranger mines, on November 17, Energy Resources of Australia - 68.4% owned by Rio Tinto - said it expects to find 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes of ore in the Ranger 3 Deeps area. In October the company signed an agreement to supply uranium oxide to a Chinese utility. At the same time they signed a safety accord. This is how safe the mine in fact is - and you won't find such records at African mines: almost 15,000 litres of acid uranium solution leaked in a 2002 incident, and since then further leaks ranging from 50 to over 23,000 litres have been reported on the South Australian Government's Primary Industries website. The most recent was on April 22, 2006 when 14,400 litres of solution containing approx. 0.5% uranium leaked out.
The list goes on.
The bottom line is this: UK ministers are blind to the consequences of their pro-nuclear evangelism. Their hypocrisy is breath-taking. Carbon credits under the Kyoto mechanism have to be independently audited by a global body to ensure that new renewable energy is unique, additional and lives up to its claims. At the very least there should be an independent, global body verifying the ethics, health and long-term safety of the nuclear supply chain.
Better, just leave it in the ground.
(c) David Thorpe
