Latest news with #lowcarbonenergy
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
How civil nuclear power funds nuclear weapons
Civil nuclear power is thought to be about providing a low carbon energy alternative to fossil fuels and is seldom connected to nuclear weapons. But the closer you look these two industries are intrinsically linked for nuclear-armed countries. Josh Toussaint-Strauss investigates how the connection between civil nuclear power and nuclear weapons spans decades and continents as well as exposes siphoning of public money and the origins of the Iran nuclear program
Zawya
17-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Yinson Production's Titus de Greeff Joins African Energy Week (AEW) 2025 to Discuss Innovative Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Solutions
Titus de Greeff, Head of Corporate Finance for Western Hemisphere at Yinson Production, has confirmed his participation as a speaker at African Energy Week (AEW): Invest in African Energies 2025, taking place from September 29 to October 3 in Cape Town. His participation comes as Yinson Production scales up its low-carbon energy solutions and deepens its footprint across Africa's offshore oil and gas sector through innovation, strategic investments and clean technology integration. As Yinson Production continues to expand its footprint across the continent, the company recently made a strategic stopover in Namibia, engaging with regional stakeholders and presenting its sustainability-focused offshore energy solutions. As Namibia rapidly rises as a frontier market for hydrocarbons, Yinson Production's presence underscores its intent to support responsible development through FPSO systems equipped with carbon-reducing technologies. Yinson Production's pioneering efforts are further exemplified by the FPSO Agogo, which will operate offshore Angola has part of the Agogo Integrated West Hub development. The vessel incorporates a suite of low-carbon technologies including a close flare system, hydrocarbon blanketing, combined cycle systems, automated process controls and all-electric drives. These innovations are expected to significantly reduce carbon emissions from FPSO operations and support Yinson Production's target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. The Agogo project will develop two deepwater discoveries – Agogo and Ndungu – in Block 15/06, located approximately 20km west of the operational FPSO N'Goma. This development positions Yinson Productions at the center of Angola's next wave of deepwater growth while reinforcing the company's commitment to cleaner offshore production. Recognizing the importance of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the global energy transition, Yinson Production has also expanded its decarbonization portfolio through key investments. In 2024, the company acquired Norway-based CCS business Stella Maris and made a strategic investment in Ionada, a technology firm specializing in compact carbon capture systems. These moves reflect Yinson Production's intent to integrate CCS into its FPSO operations and further reduce the environmental footprint of offshore energy projects. 'Yinson Production is redefining what sustainable offshore development looks like, combining cutting-edge FPSO innovation with bold carbon reduction strategies. As Africa advances oil and gas developments – from onshore to shallow water to deepwater – solutions introduced by Yinson Productions will support successful project development,' states Tomás Gerbasio, VP of Commercial and Strategic Engagement, African Energy Chamber. De Greeff's participation at AEW: Invest in African Energies 2025 is set to highlight the company's role as a trailblazer in low-carbon energy, its support for Africa's energy security and its contributions to sustainable oil and gas production. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.
Telegraph
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Labour's nuclear dream has destroyed my home: inside the Sizewell C planning row
Eastbridge, a small Suffolk village two miles inland from the coast, surrounded by marshland, has looked much the same for centuries. Over the past year, however, it has been transformed. Huge swathes of the surrounding countryside have been dug into a strange lunar landscape of sand and soil to make way for construction associated with Sizewell C, including a vast accommodation campus for workers on the outskirts of the village. The scale of the site is only really clear from aerial photographs, which shows a patchwork of grey, orange and brown where there once was lush green. And this is just the beginning. Last week, the Government pledged £14.2 billion for the project at Sizewell, which will eventually provide low-carbon electricity for six million homes for a lifespan of 60 years. The only published overall cost for the scheme was £20 billion in 2020, but it has reportedly now ballooned to over £40 billion. Still a fair price, many argue, for a source of 'clean, homegrown power' – as Ed Miliband says – to future-proof Britain's energy security. Inevitably, however, it has faced fierce opposition from residents in the surrounding area, with some locals arguing the Government hasn't counted the true cost of the lengthy construction period and the damage to the natural landscape and neighbouring communities. Alison Downes, the director of Stop Sizewell C, began campaigning against the project in 2013 on the grounds of the impact on the local area. 'In the early days we were trying to persuade the project to amend its proposal, including the location of the [accommodation] campus at Eastbridge,' she says. 'It was of grave concern that it was proposed for 3,000 people – it's gone down a little bit, but not much.' Then, she says, as she learnt more about the project, 'all these other issues [came] to the fore.' Downes, a career campaigner, has wisely focused on scrutinising Sizewell on issues of national, rather than localised, importance. Stop Sizewell C argues that the project is bad value for money, will be too slow to address climate change (it will take at least 10-12 years to build, according to the EDF), and will ultimately load too much risk onto the taxpayer. Sizewell C is supposed to be built to almost exactly the same specifications as Hinkley Point C – which has spiralled in time and budget – using European pressurised water reactor (EPR) technology. 'It was very clear that the EPR reactor specifically had this terrible track record wherever it's been built,' says Downes. 'The local issues are still of great concern. But the main thrust of our campaign has been about those macro issues in terms of sizes, role in the UK's energy mix, about the sort of unpredictability of the delivery track record, cost over funds and budget, schedule overruns…' For others, the local impact still looms large. Peering through the metal fencing that encircles the 900-acre site are Chris Wilson and Jenny Kirtley, two other residents who have protested against the construction of Sizewell C for more than a decade. They are both part of the Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) group, the other of the local campaign groups. Kirtley, who grew up in nearby Leiston, says the site chosen for the project 'is not fit for purpose,' due to the country roads, the rapidly eroding coastline, and fact that the site is within the Suffolk Coasts and Heaths National Landscape and so should be protected. The RSPB has joined in protesting against the site on the basis of its proximity to the Minsmere nature reserve, saying last year that: 'We believe that wildlife will be damaged during the lengthy construction period and will be in a worse state once development is completed.' Kirtley hoped the change in government would mean a change in approach to the Sizewell C. It was granted planning permission under the Conservative government, by then-business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, in July 2022 (despite the Examining Authority recommending it not be approved due to water supply and nature concerns). However, no such change has been forthcoming – instead, Labour have doubled down. In the words of Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Britain will enter a 'new golden age for nuclear' with the 'biggest building programme in a generation'. The scheme will ultimately be paid for by households and businesses through their electricity bills – this includes levies that will begin during the construction phase. 'Some of us have waited years for Labour to get in,' says Kirtley. 'Our last MP [Thérèse Coffey] was really the cause of all this, because she promoted East Anglia as the energy coast. So, I'm afraid Labour will never get in [here] again.' Wilson adds: 'They're just not protecting the area.' Last week's announcement of government funding has not deterred them; TASC have launched a new legal challenge against Sizewell C on the basis that large additional sea defences stretching inland would have to be installed in a 'credible maximum' climate change scenario; these were not included in the project's Development Consent Order (DCO) application and so were not subject to public scrutiny. Wilson's key concern, meanwhile, is the devastation the site would wreak on marine and wildlife, including in the adjacent RSPB Minsmere. TASC has claimed that more than 500m fish could be sucked into the new power station's cooling system if construction goes ahead. (The Government's Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) has said the fish mortality rates caused by Sizewell C would be 'sustainable'.) When the site was approved, Wilson says, 'it was an ideological thing that just overrode all the environmental damage.' If it goes ahead, he says he will move. 'I just couldn't cope with seeing everything ripped up. I've been retired for 10 or 12 years now, and I've spent a lot of that retirement just fighting Sizewell C. I don't want to spend the last 10 years of my life just watching the destruction.' In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kirtley also campaigned against neighbouring Sizewell B, and says it turned the next town over, Leiston, into an 'absolute nightmare' as the traffic worsened and an influx of temporary workers pushed prices up and caused trouble in the pubs. 'We went to visit two years into the build of Hinkley Point C, and you have no idea what the traffic was like,' says Kirtley. 'And Hinkley's feeder town is Bridgwater, which has a population of 50-60,000 – we've got 6,000 here in Leiston, and they are already struggling.' These concerns are borne out in the town centre. One young couple in Leiston say 'rent has doubled, or even tripled'. At the time of writing, family homes were listed online for £3,000-£4,000 a month. Nick Darcy, a pub landlord, also remembers the problems Sizewell B caused. 'They tell us that 'it'll be great for business,' but it's not,' he says. 'All that will happen is loads of contractors will come out, and we'll make marginally more money for about 70 per cent more hassle.' During the construction of Sizewell B, he explains, the town was a 'war zone' as locals clashed with out-of-town contractors and fights in the pubs were commonplace. Moreover, he argues the impact – both on traffic and the local environment – has already proved to be greater than the last time. 'A local ex-MP came in with leaflets against Sizewell C a couple of years ago, and I said, 'I run a bar in a nuclear town, that relies on nuclear business,' and wouldn't hear anything against it,' he continues. 'But now seeing them digging out my entire town in the process, my attitude has done a complete 180.' One of his patrons, who introduces himself as Terry, agrees. 'I helped build Sizewell B,' he says. 'This time, they've destroyed the place, ripped all the trees down. It's heartbreaking.' He recognises, however, that there are 'two sides to the story.' The other side, apart from the energy the new nuclear station will provide, is the jobs and opportunities Sizewell C says it will bring to the area. Last month, Sizewell C announced it would build a new post-16 college in the area, due to open in 2027; it has also pledged to deliver 500 jobs for people in Ipswich and 500 jobs for people in Lowestoft. However, critics argue that roughly half of the site's staff – and a much higher proportion of those in highly skilled roles – will be directly transplanted from its sister project at Hinkley Point. Downes describes the government's funding announcement as a 'massive blow.' Still, however, she hasn't given up on campaigning for the project to be dropped entirely. 'There are so many uncertainties down the line,' she says. 'Basically, it isn't over 'til it's over.'
News.com.au
30-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Going nuclear: Trump's EOs offer atomic opportunities for Australian uranium industry
President Trump has signed sweeping executive orders promoting the US nuclear industry The EOs set out a plan to quadruple US nuclear power production Australia has the largest uranium reserves in the world The morning of July 16, 1945, a thunderstorm washed the Jornada del Muerto desert clean, delaying a test that would change the course of history. By about 5am, the skies had cleared and winds had died to nothing. At exactly 5:29 and 21 seconds, the pre-dawn darkness was engulfed in blindingly bright light, transforming from yellow to red to purple and finally white in a matter of seconds. A massive shockwave thundered through the earth as a 600-metre-wide fireball punched up into the heavens, scattering what cloud remained. As the dust settled, where once had stood a 30-metre-tall steel tower topped by a plutonium bomb, there was now only desert sand – transformed into radioactive-green glass. The Trinity nuclear weapon test was a success. Humans had harnessed the power of the atom, if only for a single, stunning moment. A nuclear future Fast forward almost 80 years, and nuclear power produces 9% of the world's electricity generation. No longer the bogeyman of our grandparents' generation, nuclear power has become a standard component of the global energy mix, regarded with caution and optimism rather than outright fear. Today, there are about 440 nuclear reactors operating in 31 countries, providing about 25% of the globe's low-carbon energy. The United States is home to 94 of those reactors across 54 nuclear power plants, but that number is almost certain to rise in the next decade. US President Trump has signed sweeping executive orders aimed at kick-starting a new era of production within the US nuclear power industry, positioning it as a leader in nuclear technology once again. The EOs outline a plan to quadruple nuclear power generation in the US from 100 gigawatts to 400GW by 2050. To achieve that, the US government intends to ramp up power production at existing nuclear plants and initiate construction on at least 10 new large reactors by 2030. Supported by federal grants and funding from the Department of Energy, much of that new nuclear energy capacity will be used to support data centres and similar Artificial Intelligence infrastructure. Of course, building more reactors is all well and good, but you still need enriched uranium to power them. Russia and China dominate enriched uranium production One of the core focuses of Trump's new nuclear power EOs is divesting uranium imports away from Russia and China, which collectively account for about 57% of the world's enriched uranium production. They're followed by France (12%), the US itself (11%), the Netherlands (8%), the UK (7%) and Germany (6%). There are only four major companies that enrich uranium – Rosatom, CNNC, Urenco and Orano, all majority state-owned. Russia and China also have outsized control over global uranium mining production. Kazakhstan is the largest uranium miner globally, producing about 43% of total supply, followed by Canada (15%) Namibia (11%) and Australia (9%). As a former soviet bloc country, Kazakhstan has had close ties with Russia for decades, enriching much of its uranium with its northern neighbour. It's estimated about half of Kazakhstan's uranium is exported to China, with the rest going to Canada, Europe and the US. Trump is expected to invoke the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to declare a national emergency over America's reliance on Russian and Chinese enriched uranium and expand domestic conversion capacity. To that end, the administration intends to build out a commercial nuclear fuel recycling and reprocessing sector, a distinct departure from previous government policy which forbade the use of recycled fuel in commercial reactors. The EOs also detail a plan to expand domestic uranium conversion capacity and enrichment capabilities, with the end goal of producing enough enriched uranium to meet both civilian and defence reactor needs. What does it all mean for Australia? While the social, economic and environmental impacts from this step change in US energy strategy are bound to be far reaching and potentially world changing over the next few decades, today they represent an opportunity. Although much of it is locked away by state-based uranium mining bans, Australia holds about one third of total global resources of uranium. South Australia is home to the only producing mines at present, but the deposits themselves are scattered across the country, many in premier mining districts. As a political, economic and geographically strategic ally of the United States of America, Australia – alongside our cousins over in Canada – is incredibly well placed to take advantage of increased uranium demand. 'The latest Executive Orders reflect a clear, strategic shift in US energy policy,' Recharge Metals managing director Felicity Repacholi said. 'With projections suggesting the US will need up to four times more uranium to meet its clean energy and national security goals, the focus is finally returning to where it all begins – the mine gate. 'You can't expand nuclear energy, conversion, or enrichment capacity without a reliable supply of uranium.' Stepping into the uranium demand gap Recharge Metals (ASX:REC) is an ASX-listed uranium and lithium mining company with projects in the US and Canada. The company's US-based Carter project in Montana holds two uranium deposits with a total of about 5.1 million pounds of the yellow stuff. REC is currently moving through the permitting process for Carter, a regulatory requirement that could be drastically expedited under Trump's new EOs. 'There's now real momentum from the US government to reduce reliance on foreign uranium supply. That sends a strong signal to markets, developers, and explorers alike,' Repacholi explained. 'The increased regulatory flexibility and positive sentiment are making it more feasible than ever to bring new supply online. The US needs uranium and Recharge aims to be part of that solution.' Australian uranium companies are already benefiting from a surge in positive sentiment for the industry, which has been under pressure from short sell positions in recent months. At time of writing, Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) has climbed 24% in the last month, with several fellow ASX uranium companies adding materially to their share prices in the same period. Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) shares have jumped 16.7%, Terra Uranium (ASX:T92) 16.67% and Recharge Metals 80% in the last 30 days. Trump's push to accelerate the US nuclear energy industry isn't without its flaws, and critics no doubt have a raft of valid concerns, but even without this new administrative push the demand for uranium has only been growing. AI data centres hungry for low-carbon energy Ever since the artificial intelligence arms race between major technology companies like Microsoft and Apple kicked off, tech companies have been starving for more energy generation capacity. As many of them have climate and emissions targets, nuclear power has emerged as a highly desirable, low-carbon option. Last year, Microsoft signed a 20-year deal to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor, while Google has ordered six or seven small nuclear reactors from California'sKairos Power and Amazon purchased a nuclear-powered data centre from Talen Energy. Goldman Sachs estimates some 85-90GW of nuclear capacity will be needed just to meet data centre power demands by 2030. 'In the US alone, big tech companies have signed new contracts for more than 10 GW of possible new nuclear capacity in the last year, and Goldman Sachs Research sees potential for three plants to be brought online by 2030,' a research note stated. The World Nuclear Association's 2023 Nuclear Fuel Report predicts a 28% increase in uranium demand from 2023 to 2030, and a 51% increase from 2031-2040. That would take global uranium demand from 80,000 tonnes today, to about 102,000 pounds in 2030 and 120,000 pounds by 2040. Whether it's the Trump Administration or the Nasdaq's Magnificent Seven driving demand, the appetite for uranium is growing, and Australia is very well placed to meet it. At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Recharge Metals is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.
Arabian Business
20-05-2025
- Business
- Arabian Business
Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA)
TAQA Morocco and partners eye AED52bn in Moroccan energy and desalination projects by TAQA Morocco signs MoUs for major low-carbon energy, desalination, and infrastructure developments supporting Morocco's energy transition and water security Latest in Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) Abu Dhabi exchange announces $1.5bn TAQA listing by Staff Writer Thu 7 Sep 2023 Abu Dhabi National Energy Company lists $1.5bn bonds on ADX Abu Dhabi's TAQA reports $7.3bn H1 revenues by Staff Writer Tue 15 Aug 2023 Abu Dhabi National Energy Company has met income of $3.7bn in first half of 2023 Al Ain mosques save 1.8 million cubic metres of water following retrofitting project by Staff Writer Tue 27 Jun 2023 This was made possible through Al Ain Distribution Company replacing over 13,400 water fixtures with high-efficiency units
