The UK’s energy regulator has approved plans to invest £300m in low carbon projects including support for 3,550 charging points for electric vehicles.
Ofgem said the funds would allow energy networks to build robust electricity infrastructure for installing charging points across UK motorways. It said while more people are buying electric cars, others are put off due to a lack of charging points near home.
Ofgem said a wider charging network would help address “range anxiety”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57225856
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is predicting a major surge in CO2 emissions from energy this year, as the world rebounds from the pandemic.
Total energy emissions for 2021 will still be slightly lower than in 2019, the agency says.
But CO2 will rise by the second largest annual amount on record.
The use of coal in Asia is expected to be key: the IEA says it will push global demand up by 4.5%, taking it close to the global peak seen in 2014.
However, renewable energy is also booming, with green sources set to supply 30% of electricity this year.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56805255
The UK small modular reactor (SMR) consortium, led by Rolls-Royce, which is creating a compact nuclear power station, has revealed its latest design and an increase in power as it completes its first phase of development on time and under budget.
It has also announced it is aiming to be the first design to be assessed by regulators in the second half of 2021 in the newly-opened assessment window, which will keep it on track to complete its first unit in the early 2030s and build up to 10 by 2035.
As the power station’s design has adjusted and improved during this latest phase – with more than 200 major engineering decisions made during this latest phase – the team has optimised the configuration, efficiency and performance criteria of the entire power station, which has increased its expected power capacity, without additional cost, from 440 megawatts (MW) to 470MW