Thomas Piquemal told a French parliamentary committee that he quit the energy giant after management rejected his calls for a final investment decision to be postponed until at least 2018. Mr Piquemal said: “In January 2015, I proposed to negotiate a three-year delay with our client because we reasoned that it would weigh too heavily on EDF’s balance sheet.” He added that plans to build the Somerset plant posed a “major construction risk” and that EDF was gambling up to 70 per cent of its equity on unproven technology. His comments come just a week after the French government confirmed that a final investment decision on the £18bn project would not be made before September. It also revealed plans to raise £3.1bn through a rights issue to cover the cost of its future operations. Mr Piquemal said that he could not sign off on a decision that would see EDF follow the same route as nuclear firm Areva, where the company would have to ”recapitalise a few months before defaulting on payments”. Last year, the French government was forced to recapitalise Areva ahead of selling its reactor business to EDF. When it goes ahead, Hinkley is set to use Areva’s EPR reactor. The reactor has so far been used in three EDF plants: in Finland; in China; and in its native France. One of those plants – Flamanville in northern France – is running six years behind schedule and €7bn (£5.2bn) over budget. The Finnish Olikuluoto 3 plant is now 10 years behind schedule and €5bn (£3.7bn) over budget. The Chinese Taishan 1 plant has been under construction since 2009 and is expected to start up in the first half of 2017, while Taishan 2 is scheduled to begin operating by the end of that year. EDF declined to comment on Mr Piquemal’s comments. Source link

Yorkshire Water’s proposed £72 million new state-of the-art sludge treatment and anaerobic digestion facility at its Knostrop works in the centre of Leeds has been given the go ahead. The company’s planning proposal for the bio-energy facility was approved by Leeds City Council’s planning committee. The contract has been awarded to Black & Veatch, with the civil engineering element being delivered by Clugston Construction. Knostrop wastewater treatment works on has been treating sewage from domestic properties and industry for about 100 years. The new facility will replace the existing sludge and bio-solid incinerator, constructed in 1993, and enable the more efficient and effective treatment of sewage combined with the additional benefit of renewable power production from the wastewater effluent. Yorkshire Water director of asset management Nevil Muncaster said: “This is the single biggest investment of our current investment period (2015-2020) and will not only provide increased treatment capacity for our sludges but will also deliver significant operational cost savings enabling us to keep customer bills as low as possible. “Knostrop is designated as a strategic waste site so by increasing the future sludge and bio-solid treatment capacity of the works the project will support also growth in the Leeds sub-regions.” Planned for completion in 2019 the facility will be capable of processing 131 tonnes of dry sludge daily, and will generate enough renewable energy, using heat and power engines, to provide 55 per cent of Knostrop’s energy needs. Benefits of the new facility include: 15 per cent reduction in carbon emissions across the company Provide 55 per cent of the site’s energy needs Contribute to achieving 94 per cent recycling of the region’s sludge by 2020 The project is the latest step in Yorkshire Water’s commitment to invest in renewable energy to benefit the environment and keep customers’ bills low, and supports Leeds council’s ambition for the Lower Aire Valley to become a hub for green energy and industry. The company intends to generate approximately 18 per cent of its energy needs by 2020. In October 2014, a 123m high wind turbine was constructed at Knostrop. This structure, which cost around £3.5 million is already a major source of power for the Knostrop site, and will on average provide 10 per cent of Knostrop’s energy needs. This article first appeared on wwtonline Source link

Although older people in Scotland aged 60-plus make up 18% of the population, they account for 37% of the casualties and fatalities involving electricity. And with the vast majority of fires in Scottish homes caused by electricity – and the country’s ageing population – it’s a problem that needs to be urgently addressed.   Clare Adamson MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw, is helping leading safety charity, Electrical Safety First, to raise awareness of the dangers of electricity to Scotland’s ageing population. Adamson recently put forward a Motion in Holyrood to highlight a report – Age Safe Scotland: Electrical Safety in an Ageing Society – produced by the charity. The report – which has been distributed to all MSPs – shows that older people tend to be owner-occupiers (72%), often living in homes lacking important electrical safety features. Critically, Scotland’s quality standards for social housing and the private rented sector don’t apply to people who live in, and own, their home. But even if they don’t remain under their own roof, older people are still at risk, as Scottish care homes are not legally required to carry out mandatory electrical safety checks. Yet in 2014-2015, there were 81 fires with an electrical source in Scotland’s care homes and the number of fires in the sector has increased over the last five years. The personal cost of electrical accidents can’t be calculated but Electrical Safety First found injuries caused by an electrical fault costs Scottish tax-payers around £8.9m each year. However, a third of this (£3m) is spent on older adults – who only represent 18% of the total population. To put this in perspective, the average cost of a hospital admission for someone over 65 is comparable to the weekly cost of 28 people living in a care home. The vast majority of older people want to remain in their own homes but as this report makes clear, unsafe electrics can make that a very risky business”, explained Adamson.  “Our ageing population will see a significant increase in age-related illness and frailty with, for example, growing numbers suffering from dementia – and this report also found that electrical safety is a key issue for carers when leaving a person with dementia on their own. We have a duty of care to our older people and I applaud Electrical Safety First for highlighting this issue.” The charity’s report makes a series of recommendations to the Scottish government, including a call for free, five yearly electrical safety checks for all households with one person of pensionable age. It has also recommended mandatory checks in the social housing and care sectors and argued for the installation of Residual current devices (RCDs) – which rapidly cuts the current to reduce the risk of electric shock – in all PRS homes. “Over the last 6 years we have made over £90K available to Care and Repair Agencies in Scotland, to improve electrical safety in older people’s homes”, explained Phil Buckle, director general of Electrical Safety First. “But as this report makes clear, there is much more that needs to be done to protect Scotland’s ageing population. We hope the Scottish government will take note and act on its recommendations.”   Source link