Tag Archives: technology
More Can Be Done For Biomass Says The REA In Response To Government Energy Announcements
Robin WhitlockThursday, 27 June 2013 The poor settlement for biomass sends a very bad message over the Government’s long term support for this sector says the Renewable Energy Association (REA) The government has announced details of measures it intends to implement in order to keep the lights on in the UK and energy prices down as well as action to unlock up to £110 billon of energy infrastructure investment by 2020. The government claims the measures would support an estimated 250,000 jobs while also enabling the provision of flexible energy and helping renewables to contribute more than 30 percent of total power by 2020. Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, and Energy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey, today announced more details concerning the reforms to be implemented by the governments Energy Bill which is currently making its way through parliament. These reforms are intended to give developers and investors the confidence they need to progress with new projects at a time when huge investment needs to be made in Britain’s energy infrastructure Around a fifth of Britain’s ageing power plants are due to close over the coming decade with further closures in the 2020s and recent Ofgem updates anticipate that the buffer between peak demand and supply could in fact be lower than previously expected. The government intends to introduce Capacity Agreements under the new Capacity Market, alongside long-term Contracts for Difference (CfDs) for low-carbon power which will make it cheaper to deliver low-carbon generation. The Capacity Agreements are intended to boost energy supplies into the next decade while protecting consumers against volatility in market prices. Similar capacity markets already operate in the US and a number of EU countries with another currently being introduced in France. In addition to the Capacity Agreements, Renewable Strike Prices will be available from 2014 to 2019 for renewable electricity generation including onshore and offshore wind, tidal, wave, biomass and large-scale solar. The Strike Prices will also remove price volatility risk but are specifically aimed at electricity generated from low-carbon sources under CfDs. Support for the Strike Prices comes from the £7.6 billion Levy Control Framework, a cap to limit the costs passed on to consumers through long-term contracts. The LCF covers all of DECC’s support mechanisms for low-carbon energy generation and will be set at £7.6 billion in 2020-21 starting in 2015-16 at £4.3 billion. “No other sector is equal in scale to the British power market, in terms of the opportunity that it offers to investors, and the scale of the infrastructure challenge” said Ed Davey. “Our reforms will renew our electricity supply, attracting up to £110 billion investment in a mix of clean, secure power and demand reduction, and will support up to 250,000 jobs up and down the supply-chain. The Capacity Market will incentivise investment in new gas plant and other flexible capacity to maintain an adequate supply margin – the safety blanket over and above expected demand – for 2018 onwards. Ofgem and National Grid will consult on possible steps they could take to ensure that mothballed power plant or demand response is available if needed in the middle of the decade. The Strike Prices for renewable technologies announced today aim to make the UK market one of the most attractive for developers of wind, wave, tidal, solar and other renewables technologies, whilst minimising the costs to consumers. This will help boost home-grown sources of clean secure energy, and enable us to decarbonise the power sector, with renewables contributing more than 30% to our mix by the end of this decade.” Responding to the government’s announcements, REA Chief Executive Gaynor Hartnell said that the really striking thing about the draft Strike Price list is what has been omitted from it, particularly dedicated biomass technologies. She said that the REA will be pushing for clarification on these as soon as possible given that a cap has been imposed for dedicated biomass under the Renewables Obligation (RO). “There are hundreds of megawatts of biomass projects looking to commission under the new support regime and their contribution of clean, baseload electricity will help keep the lights on when the capacity crunch comes” Ms Hartnell added. “This is a technology with a long-term role to play. It helps with the objective of keeping waste wood out of landfill and is a good use for agricultural by-products such as straw and chicken litter. In the long term, when coupled with carbon capture and storage, this technology could actually be carbon negative. Biomass has been a mainstay of renewable energy policy since the mid-1990s and over the last few months biomass projects have been encouraged to apply for CfDs. It would be inconceivable and nonsensical for Government to turn its back on this technology.” Ms Hartnell added that capping the amount of biomass projects is profoundly unhelpful when there is an impending capacity crunch and given the international market in debt financing for renewables. She also pointed out that lenders look at the UK regime and are questioning its reliability. Capping biomass is not, therefore, the right message when tens of billions of pounds of investment in renewables is required. In a separate announcement, the government has also released estimates of the amount of shale gas in the UK in order to give industry and regulators an indication of how best to plan future exploratory drilling. The government intends to introduce reforms enabling shale gas exploration alongside a package of community benefits in areas where shale gas is commercially extracted. While accepting that shale gas would, subject to public approval, be better than reliance on imports, the REA warned that development of shale gas resources should not be a distraction from renewables. “The UK needs eventually to produce electricity with virtually zero carbon emissions” said Ms Hartnell. “If shale gas can revolutionise our economy, we must invest the proceeds in building a resilient energy system for the future, dominated by renewables.” In relation to renewables targets Ms Hartnell further pointed out that the UK has the most demanding target of all the EU Member States and that the prospects for getting on track to meet 15% in 2020 seem remote. “The effect of a steep drop in lending decisions taken in 2008 will manifest itself, there will inevitably be a hiatus with the closure of the Renewables Obligation and the Government seems to have gone lukewarm on renewables” she said. “It is important that the UK meets its renewables target in the most cost-effective way possible. Heating from biomass is one of the cheapest means of doing this. This poor settlement, coupled with next week’s tariff reductions for medium scale biomass installations, sends a very bad message over the Government’s long term support for this sector. The UK needs a massive expansion in renewable heat to meet climate change objectives – which will create jobs and growth all along the supply chain. The Government should be doing all it can to get the RHI back on track, not cutting its budget.” Further information: Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Renewable Energy Association (REA) Continue reading
DOE Announces Investment In 4 Advanced Biofuel Projects
Taylor Scott International Continue reading
Cyber security risks on the rise, study reveals
Cyber security risks on the rise, study reveals Issac John / 28 June 2013 Cyber security risks in the UAE are potentially increasing with social media becoming more available within companies, new study reveals. While 65 per cent of IT experts in the UAE believe the region is a prime target for cyber criminals, 63 per cent believe that the number of “successful cyber attacks” will decrease in the next 12 months, the research conducted by Gulf Business Machines (GBM) said. Across the globe, cyber crimes are growing and by 2017, the global cyber security market is expected to skyrocket to $120.1 billion. The estimated annual cost over global cyber crime is $100 billion, latest data reveals. The total global volume of cybercrime in 2011 was $388 billion, and in 2012, consumer cybercrime alone caused losses of $110 billion. In the UAE, experts estimate that three-quarters of Internet users in the country will become victims of cybercrime. Of that figure 75 per cent of the hacking is slated to happen around our bank accounts. And only one out of 10 is estimated to have installed anti-virus software on mobile phones. The GBM survey results reveal that 35 per cent of incidents are staff related, which can be avoided by increasing employee awareness. “ The security landscape in the UAE has continually evolved in recent years, largely due to the increase of cyber crime. The results of the research also highlights that 21 per cent of respondents said their organisations have not been conducting regular proactive screenings to ensure that their IT infrastructure and critical data are protected. Respondents are expressing a false sense of security as the survey shows that 63 per cent of respondents believe that the number of successful attacks will decrease in the next 12 months,” the GBM report said. “Companies are more aware of IT security issues than ever before. Although organizations are showing more interest in pre-emptive measures against possible cyber threats, they are not always taking the appropriate measures,” said Hani Nofal, director of Intelligent Network Solutions (INS) at GBM. “Nearly half of the organizations polled spend up to 10 per cent of their IT budget on security. However, we expect this number to increase in the future,” said Nofal. Similar GBM research conducted last year showed that just over a third of those polled claimed that their organisations’ IT policies completely prohibited access to social networking websites. Today, this number has been cut in half, indicating that more businesses are adopting and embracing social media. “Companies in the region have been exploring social media as a new way of communicating with the public. Enterprises are, therefore, opening their internal networks and allowing access to social media. This is increasing the potential of cyber risks for organizations and making them more vulnerable to cyber security attacks,” said Nofal. A report published in the January issue of 999 Magazine, the official English monthly of the Ministry of Interior, revealed that cyber-attacks had mostly targeted the banking sector, including both the ATM and Internet banking applications, in the UAE. The banking sector topped the list of the most eyed target (35%) while the remaining 65% attacks were launched against the government’s e-services, telecommunication systems, and educational institutions’ systems, according to the report. To address this problem, most of police general headquarters in the UAE have established cybercrime and organisational security units. They also have computer forensics teams that specialise in obtaining, recovering, examining, analysing, and presenting electronic evidence stored on computers or other electronic devices. Cloud computing has also become an ideal target because of its reliability and scalability. In 2012, a new legislation came into force in the UAE codifying the full range of cyber crimes that can be committed and the resulting penalties. The UAE is the first country in the Middle East to implement such a wide-ranging cyber crime law. The law has been introduced in response to increasing levels of cyber crime in the UAE, brought about by rapidly evolving technology and the growth of transactions conducted via the internet. The new law, which builds on the previous 2006 law, is far more comprehensive in its nature and scope. — issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
