All about energy

The decision comes after months of talks and is believed to have been finalised as a result of an important change in the budget last week, which brought public grants of upwards of £60m for ports to build green manufacturing hubs around them.

“With the new wind turbine production plant in the UK we’re pushing ahead with our strategy of investments in attractive growth markets for eco-friendly technology. In the foreseeable future the wind power market in the UK will be characterised by major offshore projects, and we’ll extend our market leadership with the new production plant,” said Peter Löscher, President and CEO of Siemens AG.

Andreas J. Goss, Siemens’ chief executive in the UK, said: “The UK government has created a stable framework to attract inward investment in renewables and offshore wind power in particular. The competition for land development, announced in the Budget last week, gives us confidence that the appropriate UK port infrastructure can be made available to support our production plans.”

The Siemens facility is expected to create 700 direct jobs and perhaps as many as 1,500 more in the supply chain. The plans come only a few days after GE announced a similar initiative in Britain, with investment of £100m, creating 2,000 jobs. Mitsubishi of Japan and Clipper Windpower have also announced schemes to make bigger and better blades that could bring down the cost of producing wind offshore.

Siemens is currently exploring a number of sites on the East Coast and in the North East and will make its decision about the exact location when the competition process for land development is complete. The company is working closely with the Regional Development Agencies and its partners to find the optimum site.

Big utilities such as E.ON and RWE have already won acreage under the Round Three (R3) licensing scheme to develop wind farms many miles off the coast of Britain. But some have warned that the economics remain fragile, given the deep water levels and other factors involved, unless development costs can be driven down.

Commenting on the announcement from Siemens Frost & Sullivan’s Wind Energy Industry Analyst Gouri Kumar said, “A combination of factors such as the UK government’s efforts to attract these companies to set up plants in the UK, the support to the offshore wind industry in the recent UK budget as well as the announcement of Round Three offshore wind project leasing, has sent the right signals to the market about how serious the UK is about developing the offshore wind market.

“The string of announcements from Clipper Windpower a few months ago to Siemens today is conveying to the market that the UK is finally converting rhetoric to some action and is one step ahead in creating a much-needed supply chain in the UK. There is no doubt that the UK is going to be the centre of offshore wind development and therefore needs to bring jobs and investment to the country in order to support that development. The commitment to the sector from the government and industry participants need to continue.”

A chairman has been appointed to an independent review into the science published by the research unit at the centre of the “Climategate” row.

Lord Oxburgh is a former chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology.

“The shadow hanging over climate change and science more generally at present makes it a matter of urgency that we get on with this assessment,” he said.

The Lord’s appointment was made on the recommendation of the UK Royal Society.

The e-mails issue came to light in November last year, when hundreds of messages between scientists at the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Climate Research Unit (CRU) and their peers around the world were posted on the world wide web, along with other documents.

Critics said that the e-mail exchanges reveal an attempt by the researchers involved to manipulate data.

CRU SCIENCE REVIEW PANEL Chair – Ron Oxburgh FRS (Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool) Huw Davies, professor of physics at the Institute for Atmospheric & Climate Science at ETH Zurich Kerry Emanuel, professor of meteorology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lisa Graumlich, directs the school of natural resources and the environment at Arizona University David Hand, professor of statistics in the department of mathematics at Imperial College London Herbert Huppert, professor of theoretical geophysics at the University of Cambridge Michael Kelly, Prince Philip professor of technology at the University of Cambridge

Lord Oxburgh will lead the second independent review into the e-mail controversy and will scrutinise scientific material from the CRU.

The CRU Scientific Assessment Panel is distinct from the panel chaired by Sir Muir Russell, which will look at the methods and practices used by scientists at the research unit.

Sir Muir’s review will, among other things, examine e-mail exchanges for evidence of suppression or manipulation of data at odds with acceptable scientific practice and look into CRU’s compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Both inquiries are funded by UEA.

Ron Oxburgh trained as a geologist and has worked in academia, the civil service and in business. He has been chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and was non-executive chairman of Shell Transport and Trading until the Company merged with Royal Dutch Petroleum to form Royal Dutch Shell in 2005.

He is currently president of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association and chairman of wind energy firm Falck Renewables.

Picking the team

Dr Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation think-tank, said he was “surprised” by the selection as he said Lord Oxburgh was “a representative of an energy company which promotes wind energy and campaigns on de-carbonisation”.

“We are a bit surprised that they couldn’t find someone who was completely independent of the debate. But perhaps we shouldn’t be, because the university has a track record of selecting some contentious panel members in the past,” he told BBC News.

UEA will be aware of allegations of bias directed at the review chaired by Sir Muir Russell. Even before that review could begin its work, one of its members, Dr Philip Campbell, the editor-in-chief of Nature journal, resigned.

Dr Campbell stood down because of remarks he had made last year in the Chinese media in which he said the scientists mentioned in the e-mails had “behaved as researchers should”.

The university says the panel comprises scientists who use techniques similar to those used in CRU but who largely apply them to other areas of research, as well as those with experience in climate science and related research.

Professor Trevor Davies, UEA’s pro-vice-chancellor for research commented: “Our concern has been to bring together a distinguished group of independent scientists who understand the difference between assertion and evidence, and are familiar with using the latter to judge the validity of conclusions arising from science research.”

Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said he expected critics would try to discredit the panel. But he added: “Nobody should be in doubt that this is a high-quality panel of individuals who have demonstrated both their authority and integrity.”

The university says the CRU Scientific Assessment Panel will have access to any publications or materials it requests, and all information considered will be listed in the eventual report.

UEA, in consultation with the Royal Society, has suggested that the panel looks in particular at key publications from the body of CRU’s research which were referred to in the university’s recent submission to the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee.

The panel will meet in Norwich in April and will be given the opportunity to see original data and speak to those who carried out the work.

The incident at Whitelee wind farm happened on Friday

An investigation is under way at Europe’s largest onshore wind farm in East Renfrewshire after a 150ft blade snapped off a turbine.

The incident, at about 0200 GMT on Friday, led to Whitelee wind farm, near Eaglesham, being temporarily shut down.

ScottishPower Renewables, which runs the site, said the cause was unknown but mechanical failure and a lightning strike were being considered.

A safety check on all 140 turbines should be completed by Friday.

The damaged turbine was automatically shut down after sensors alerted the wind farm’s 24-hour control room to the problem.

All turbines at the site were then taken offline while engineers began an inspection.

‘Highly unusual’

By Tuesday morning 65 turbines had been inspected and returned to operation.

A full inspection of the wind farm is expected to be completed by 26 March.

Keith Anderson, managing director of ScottishPower Renewables, said: “This type of incident is exceptionally rare and highly unusual.

“However, the safety of our people and the public is our first priority.

“While the investigation into the cause of the incident is ongoing our engineers continue to conduct an internal and external examination of all turbine blades at the wind farm.”

The Whitelee wind farm currently has 140 turbines. Approval has been granted for a further 39 turbines.

The wind turbines, which are built by Siemens, are about 360ft high.

Councillors have approved an extension to a Stirlingshire wind farm despite the recommendation of planning experts to scrap the project.

Officials opposed the building of nine turbines at the wind farm near Fintry because it would have an adverse impact on the landscape.

There were also worries the view from Stirling Castle would be affected.

But 36 letters were received in support of the Falck Renewables scheme, which had considerable local backing.

Seven letters were sent objecting to the scheme.

A spokeswoman for Stirling Council said: “The panel took the decision to grant the application. They went against officers recommendations for refusal.”

The new turbines will be constructed to the north-west of the existing Earlsburn wind farm.

Charles Williams, from Falck Renewables, said the extension would deliver “real economic, social and environmental benefits” to people living nearby.

Climate change targets

He said local communities would share £1,000 per annum, plus income generated from the community turbine.

He added: “Construction is expected to commence in 2011 and take approximately nine months to complete.”

Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford said he welcomed the decision to go ahead with the wind farm.

The SNP politician said: “I am a keen supporter of such projects when they are situated in appropriate locations.

“This will make a significant contribution to the development of renewable energy and meeting ambitious climate change targets.

“It will also mean that nearby communities will benefit directly through additional investment as a result of this project.”

The SSV Corwith Cramer is involved in the plastics research

Scientists have discovered an area of the North Atlantic Ocean where plastic debris accumulates.

The region is said to compare with the well-documented “great Pacific garbage patch”.

Karen Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association told the BBC that the issue of plastics had been “largely ignored” in the Atlantic.

She announced the findings of a two-decade-long study at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, US.

The work is the conclusion of the longest and most extensive record of plastic marine debris in any ocean basin.

Scientists and students from the SEA collected plastic and marine debris in fine mesh nets that were towed behind a research vessel.

We know that many marine organisms are consuming these plastics and we know this has a bad effect on seabirds in particular Dr Karen Lavender Law, Sea Education Association

The nets dragged along were half-in and half-out of the water, picking up debris and small marine organisms from the sea surface.

The researchers carried out 6,100 tows in areas of the Caribbean and the North Atlantic – off the coast of the US. More than half of these expeditions revealed floating pieces of plastic on the water surface.

These were pieces of low-density plastic that are used to make many consumer products, including plastic bags.

Dr Lavender Law said that the pieces of plastic she and her team picked up in the nets were generally very small – up to 1cm across.

“We found a region fairly far north in the Atlantic Ocean where this debris appears to be concentrated and remains over long periods of time,” she explained.

“More than 80% of the plastic pieces we collected in the tows were found between 22 and 38 degrees north. So we have a latitude for [where this] rubbish seems to accumulate,” she said.

The maximum “plastic density” was 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometre.

“That’s a maximum that is comparable with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” said Dr Lavender Law.

But she pointed out that there was not yet a clear estimate of the size of the patches in either the Pacific or the Atlantic.

“You can think of it in a similar way [to the Pacific Garbage Patch], but I think the word ‘patch’ can be misleading. This is widely dispersed and it’s small pieces of plastic,” she said.

The impacts on the marine environment of the plastics were still unknown, added the researcher.

“But we know that many marine organisms are consuming these plastics and we know this has a bad effect on seabirds in particular,” she told BBC News.

Nets are dragged half-in and half-out of the water

Nikolai Maximenko from University of Hawaii, who was not involved in the study, said that it was very important to continue the research to find out the impacts of plastic on the marine ecosystem.

He told BBC News: “We don’t know how much is consumed by living organisms; we don’t have enough data.

“I think this is a big target for the next decade – a global network to observe plastics in the ocean.”

The jatropha plant can grow in soil not suitable for food crops Dave Harvey: Bristol or Borneo?

An application to build a controversial biofuel power station is being considered by councillors in Bristol.

Environmental groups oppose the plant, and the city’s council leader says it is likely to lead to rainforest destruction and food insecurity.

But council officials say there are no good grounds to block the proposal under existing planning law.

It is one of several plants around the UK under consideration; one in Weymouth has already been approved.

The firm applying to build the bio-liquids power plant, W4B, says it will power 25,000 homes.

It would be fuelled by 70,000 tonnes of vegetable oil a year, first perhaps with palm oil but later with jatropha oil.

Critics blame the growing demand for palm oil for rainforest destruction, and say jatropha oil displaces food crops and pushes up the price of food.

But a W4B spokesman told BBC West that they would ensure the fuel was obtained from sustainable sources.

The EU says, if used responsibly, biofuels can reduce carbon emissions and increase energy security.

In the UK, biofuel power stations attract government incentives in the form of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs), provided the fuel meets EU sustainability rules.

A government spokesman outlined the sustainability criteria, which includes:

• Minimum greenhouse gas savings, compared to fossil fuels, of 35% initially, rising to 50% from 2017 for existing power stations and 60% from 2018 for new installations

• Restrictions on sourcing raw materials from areas that are rich in biodiversity or are considered to be important carbon sinks, such as primary forests

Opponents of biofuels say the criteria imposed by governments will be irrelevant because any crops grown for fuel will simply increase pressure on land around the world and – either directly or indirectly – impact on food or wildlife.

British Airways has struck a deal to build the first plant in Europe to produce jet fuel from waste matter.

Some 500,000 tonnes of waste will be used by the UK facility each year to produce 16 million gallons of fuel.

Construction of the plant in east London will start within two years. It is set to produce fuel from 2014, creating up to 1,200 jobs.

BA said the plant would produce twice the amount of fuel needed to power all its flights from London City Airport.

It would only account for about 2% of flights from Heathrow, however.

Greenhouse gas

BA argues the plant will cut the amount of waste that is sent to landfill, reducing the amount of methane that is produced.

Methane is thought to be a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The plant will be built by a US company Solena Group, with BA committing to buy all of its output.

It will be another four years before it starts producing fuel, and it is unlikely to work at full capacity straight away.

The ideal source material for the plant is waste matter that has a high carbon content.

Biofuel creation

The waste is fed into a high temperature “gasifier” to produce BioSynGas.

A chemical process called Fischer Tropsch is then used to convert the gas into biofuel.

Waste products from the process can be used to power the plant as well as supply 20MW of electricity to the national grid.

A solid waste product can be used as an aggregate in construction.

The fuel produced by the plant is certified for use in other countries, but not currently in the UK.

BA says it is confident of getting the certification by the time the plant starts producing fuel, either for use in a blend with traditional kerosene or on its own.

The UK could face power shortages in the years ahead, according to the energy regulator, Ofgem.

The regulator also warns that a significant number of consumers may not be able to afford the higher energy prices they will have to face.

Ofgem says there is “reasonable doubt” about whether the UK’s energy market will be able to deliver sustainable supplies in the coming decade.

The industry needs £200bn of investment, Ofgem said.

Faced with unprecedented challenges we’re looking at new solutions to protect security of supply Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem chief executive

However, Ofgem believes energy companies may need stronger incentives before committing that level of funds.

In its report, Ofgem says the UK’s open competitive energy market could fail to deliver secure, sustainable supplies in the coming decade.

Chief executive Alistair Buchanan told BBC News: “Faced with the unprecedented challenge of carbon prices, the unprecedented challenge of the credit crunch and the unprecedented challenge of maintaining international supplies, we’re looking at new solutions to protect security of supply.”

Among its range of solutions Ofgem suggests that companies should be required to deliver more generation capacity and gas storage.

It also suggests that the industry should revert to a form of centralised market control, which if adopted, would amount to the biggest shake up in the industry since privatisation.

Two revolutionary ‘green’ power stations have been shut down because they don’t work properly and they pump out too much smoke.

Dutch company Heineken had been hoping to improve its green credentials

The biomass plants installed at Heineken’s breweries in Manchester and Tadcaster were hailed as the first in the world to turn brewery waste into electricity and steam.

Designed to burn grain that has been used in the brewing process as well as wood chips, the £35m investment was described as “a major step towards sustainable energy and self-sufficiency for the brewing industry”.

In November last year, the company pledged that the new power stations would reduce carbon emissions by 30,000 tonnes a year and would provide all of the electricity needed at both breweries.

But a company memo leaked to Sky News says the power stations have now been turned off because the fuel is too wet and “excessive smoke” from the chimneys might upset their neighbours.

Richard Jeffers, Heineken’s UK engineering manager, told staff the plants are being shut down and workers will be “redeployed”.

“We do not have a way of starting the plants up from cold where we can guarantee that we do not cause excessive smoke, causing disruption to our neighbours,” he said.

The memo says that plans to try to adapt the plants have been scrapped and that the company is trying to find something else to burn.

“The fuel-handling system is not robust and cannot handle the design fuel,” it states.

“We will conduct an in-depth review of the biomass fuel supply chain available to us in the UK with the aim of identifying an economically and operationally viable fuel source.”

The plants cost £35m

Jeffers makes no promise about when the plants, which were designed to power the breweries for at least 30 years, will be started up again, but says a “financial evaluation” will be conducted.

A company spokeswoman told Sky News that in three months of operation the power stations have only ever burned woodchips but insisted that they could burn spent grain at some time in the future.

“We are committed to finding the right operational conditions to enable the plants to provide clean, cheap and sustainable energy for our breweries,” she said.

The study by a panel of independent experts found that the irritation caused by the noise around wind farms can effect certain individuals.

Scientists dismissed the idea of a “wind turbine syndrome” where the vibrations in the air or the particular sound waves from wind turbines cause headaches, nausea and panic attacks.

However, they did concede that the swishing sound caused by wind turbines can “annoy” some people, keeping them awake at night and even causing psychological problems because of the stress.

The Government is planning on building thousands more wind turbines onshore and the report has led calls for more research into the noise effects caused by the turbines.

But the wind industry said if wind turbines were harmful, it would be impossible to live in a city given the sound levels normally present in urban environments.

The Government insisted that wind farms do not have a direct impact on health.

Wind farms have traditionally been seen by protesters as a blot on the British countryside, but it has now emerged that their noise may make people ill.

A new study found no evidence for “wind turbine syndrome” where the wind farms directly cause a host of health problems such as headaches, nausea and panic attacks.

But the swishing sound caused by wind turbines can be a problem for certain people, causing sleep deprivation and even mental health problems.

It has sparked renewed debate on the Government’s plans for more onshore wind and led to calls for more research into the problems caused by noise.

A panel of independent experts in public health, audiology and medicine looked at peer-reviewed studies on the health effects of wind turbines.

Wind Turbine Sound and Health Effects, commissioned by the American Wind Energy Association, found that some people may be “annoyed” by the sound of wind turbines. A major cause of concern is the fluctuating nature of the sound, which is particularly stressful for some people because it is difficult to get accustomed to intermittent noise.

Dr Geoff Leventhall, an honorary fellow of the UK’s Institute of Acoustics and one of the authors of the study, said noise from wind turbines can disturb people in the same way as any other noise pollution, such as an airport nearby.

“The conclusions of our report were that the main effects of wind turbines noise is similar to the effect of any other noise and will disturb people if they are listening to a noise they do not want to hear. One of the main effects is sleep disturbance which can lead to other stress related effects.”

Presenting the evidence at a Wind Turbine Noise meeting organised by the IOA in Cardiff, he emphasised that only a small number of people find the noise distressing, which can lead to sleep deprivation and psychological problems.

“The number of people who suffer these extreme effects are small and ** if the turbines are designed properly the effects are minimised even further,” he added.

Jane Davis is hoping to take the country’s first private nuisance case against a wind farm to the High Court.

The 54-year-old was forced to move from her home in Lincolnshire after eight wind turbines were built in 2006.

The qualified nurse said one in five wind farms cause noise problems for the local people.

“All I know is the amount of health problems people have suffered since [the turbines were put up] seem to be excessive in relation to what was happening,” she said. “Those symptoms include sleep deprivation, tittinus, vertigo, depression, raised blood pressure, atrial fibrillation (abnormal heart beat), needing to go the lavatory at night more often than you would normally, pneumonia, ear infections, stomach disorders and psychological stress.”

Mrs Davis said 190 campaigners around the country have complained of noise and are expected to consider legal proceedings if the test case is successful.

“This is not Nimbyism. These things have devastated my life and continue to do so,” she said. “The last four years have been hell and there has been no redress.”

The Government has plans to build up to 6,000 new turbines onshore over the next ten years.

Mary Stevens, policy officer at the charity Environment Protection UK, said there will need to be more research into the problems caused by noise.

“While we fully support the deployment of renewable energy, we believe, that like any major development, the siting and operation of wind farms must be carried out with full regard to any significant and lasting impacts on local environmental quality and health,” she said.

However the British Wind Energy Association pointed out that the new report said there were no direct health effects from wind farms.

“The findings of the study tally with UK research on the subject. In 2007 a Government-backed study carried out by the University of Salford found that only one wind farm in the UK was ever found to present a noise nuisance to residents and the issue has since been resolved,” a spokesman said.

Wind turbines by numbers

The Government wants to built up to 6,000 new wind turbines on land over the next ten years.

At the moment there are more than 2,500 turbines onshore.

The turbines are around 300ft high

Onshore wind provides around 2.5 per cent of the country’s electricity needs

The current limit for noise is 43 maximum decibels at night

Campaigners want it reduced to 33 decibels at night