Japan:
¶ The new Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority will not use the results of stress tests performed by its predecessor. Instead, it will establish its own, new criteria on whether nuclear reactors will be allowed to restart. This means the utilities will have to start the process of restarting over from the beginning, and they do not know where to start yet. [The Japan Times]
¶ Japanese utilities are lobbying hard to restart nuclear power generation. Four of them are likely to go bankrupt if the plants are not restarted. The government is waffling on the subject. Seven and a half million people have signed petitions to abandon nuclear power. Renewable power generation is growing at about twice the rate needed to achieve government goals. [IBTimes.co.uk]
¶ TEPCO has started removing steel debris from Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3. [The Denki Shimbun]
World:
¶ The man responsible for institutional investment of €100 billion at Union Investment expressed “some concern the sector overall may not be enough to absorb the general investment demand, particularly from larger allocators.” [Investment Europe]
¶ The European Commission’s Joint Research Center says renewable energy generation is the only set of power sources that offers price reductions. All others offer price increases. [pv magazine]
¶ Germany now has over 30GW PV of solar capacity. [PV Insider and News Analysis]
¶ A report from GlobalData says renewable power generation in the UK will equal thermal by 2025. [IBTimes.co.uk]
¶ Denmark is now getting 40% of its power from renewable sources. [Reuters]
¶ Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing, talking of the country’s goal of 100% electrical generation by 2020, said, “We are confident, that the target, while being ambitious, is achievable.” [Deutsche Welle]
¶ The World Bank will join a United Nations initiative aimed at increasing the poor’s access to electricity and clean household fuels. [inAudit]
US:
¶ A poll taken for the wind industry indicates 67% of those responding said they would prefer to have their electricity sources supplied by renewable power sources, versus 9% for fossil fuels and 8% for nuclear. [Huffington Post]
… A poll taken for the nuclear industry came up with somewhat different figures, showing 65% support nuclear. [World Nuclear News]
¶ A cavern below the sinkhole at Bayou Corne has been found to have 1300 feet of debris at the bottom. The cavern was full of natural gas, which has been bubbling up to the surface around the area. [The Advocate]
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