First British Shale Gas ‘Could Fuel Homes Next Year’
Britain Pulls Plug On Solar Farm Subsidies
Shale gas could be fuelling British homes for the first time by late 2015, under plans from fracking firm Cuadrilla. The company is preparing to submit planning applications by the end of this month to frack at two sites in Lancashire next year. Francis Egan, Cuadrilla chief executive, said that, if successful, it planned to connect the test fracking sites up to the gas grid, in what would be a milestone first for the fledgling British shale gas industry. --Emily Gosden, The Daily Telegraph, 12 May 2014
Subsidies
that have driven the spread of large solar farms across Britain are to be
scrapped under plans to stop the panels blighting the countryside. Energy
companies that build solar farms currently qualify for generous consumer-funded
subsidies through the so-called ‘Renewable Obligation’ (RO) scheme, and had
expected to keep doing so until 2017. But the Department of Energy and Climate
Change announced on Tuesday that it planned to shut the RO to new large solar
farms two years early, from April next year. --Emily Gosden, The Daily Telegraph, 13 May 2014
Lord Lawson hailed George Osborne as an ally in his fight to change the government’s energy policy. --Francis Elliott, The Times, 13 May 2014
Last week the House of Lords’ Economic Affairs committee revealed that appalling confusion and complexity is deterring vital investment in Britain’s energy industry. Today Lord Lawson of Blaby, who sits on that committee, tells The Times the coalition is not merely misguided on energy but “doesn’t have an energy policy” at all. His remarks will irritate ministers, as well-aimed criticism often does... What Britain lacks is politicians with the courage and vision to embrace it. -- For years now, this and previous governments have postponed the tough decisions needed to secure Britain’s energy supply for the future and make it affordable for business as well as domestic customers. What passes for a coalition energy policy is in fact a tangle of regulations, subsidies and incentives that is delaying investment, driving up prices over the long term and making blackouts a real possibility by as soon as next year. Britain’s lack of a coherent energy strategy is an emergency that will not go away just because of a short-term outlook of warm weather and long summer evenings. It is, as Dieter Helm, of Oxford University, told the Lords’ committee, a “very slow-motion car crash” that is already happening. --Editorial, The Times, 13 May 2014
They were crazy dreamers who dared to believe that oil and gas could be produced from beneath England’s rolling green hills. No one imagined that oil and gas could be fracked from almost impermeable shales buried thousands of feet below the surface. But Britain’s small onshore energy companies are now in the midst of a mini boom as they seek to capitalise on the new-found interest from investors to consolidate their holdings and raise external finance. Sceptics might suggest Britain’s shale gas companies are on the cusp of a bubble, with more investment being made before anyone is certain that the shale formations will yield commercially meaningful amounts of gas and oil. But bubble-type enthusiasm is essential to the success of any new technology. --John Kemp, Reuters, 12 May 2014
In the wake of the American shale gas boom and the resulting cheaper power, U.S. manufacturers have been moving their work back home from overseas, and now foreign manufacturers, especially from Europe, are moving their facilities to the U.S. While prices in the U.S. power market have fallen due to cheap natural gas, prices in Europe’s power market are much higher, lifted by subsidies for renewable wind and solar power projects. While a decade ago, American manufacturing jobs were flowing to China, this year, more than 50 percent of $1 billion-plus U.S. companies with operations in China are considering moving all or part of their production back home, according to Boston Consulting Group. --Meagan Clark, International Business Times, 10 May 2014
Lord Lawson hailed George Osborne as an ally in his fight to change the government’s energy policy. --Francis Elliott, The Times, 13 May 2014
Last week the House of Lords’ Economic Affairs committee revealed that appalling confusion and complexity is deterring vital investment in Britain’s energy industry. Today Lord Lawson of Blaby, who sits on that committee, tells The Times the coalition is not merely misguided on energy but “doesn’t have an energy policy” at all. His remarks will irritate ministers, as well-aimed criticism often does... What Britain lacks is politicians with the courage and vision to embrace it. -- For years now, this and previous governments have postponed the tough decisions needed to secure Britain’s energy supply for the future and make it affordable for business as well as domestic customers. What passes for a coalition energy policy is in fact a tangle of regulations, subsidies and incentives that is delaying investment, driving up prices over the long term and making blackouts a real possibility by as soon as next year. Britain’s lack of a coherent energy strategy is an emergency that will not go away just because of a short-term outlook of warm weather and long summer evenings. It is, as Dieter Helm, of Oxford University, told the Lords’ committee, a “very slow-motion car crash” that is already happening. --Editorial, The Times, 13 May 2014
They were crazy dreamers who dared to believe that oil and gas could be produced from beneath England’s rolling green hills. No one imagined that oil and gas could be fracked from almost impermeable shales buried thousands of feet below the surface. But Britain’s small onshore energy companies are now in the midst of a mini boom as they seek to capitalise on the new-found interest from investors to consolidate their holdings and raise external finance. Sceptics might suggest Britain’s shale gas companies are on the cusp of a bubble, with more investment being made before anyone is certain that the shale formations will yield commercially meaningful amounts of gas and oil. But bubble-type enthusiasm is essential to the success of any new technology. --John Kemp, Reuters, 12 May 2014
In the wake of the American shale gas boom and the resulting cheaper power, U.S. manufacturers have been moving their work back home from overseas, and now foreign manufacturers, especially from Europe, are moving their facilities to the U.S. While prices in the U.S. power market have fallen due to cheap natural gas, prices in Europe’s power market are much higher, lifted by subsidies for renewable wind and solar power projects. While a decade ago, American manufacturing jobs were flowing to China, this year, more than 50 percent of $1 billion-plus U.S. companies with operations in China are considering moving all or part of their production back home, according to Boston Consulting Group. --Meagan Clark, International Business Times, 10 May 2014
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