MorganEnergy

Email from the IAEE informs us that Vol. 29, No. 4 of The Energy Journal is now available. This is a members only publication so we can’t link to it, but it does contain a number of interesting papers. One that caught the eye was “Carbon Tax or Carbon Permits: The Impact on Generators’ Risks” by Richard Green. According the the abstract, preference for carbon trading or a carbon tax is different depending on whether a the generator is a carbon emitter or not. In an uncertain political world, this might suggest that British Energy‘s idea of joint ventures might be a good hedge against the risk of not knowing what sort of scheme will be implemented.

The kind folks at SSRN have written to explain how to find the USAEE Working Papers series. And lo, there are 138 of them! You can find the full list here. Currently there is no means of being notified when a new paper is posted, but we’ll keep an eye on the site and mention anything new here.

A new report published by Clean Edge, a clean technology research company, suggests that solar power will be competitive with traditional sources in much of the USA by 2015. That contrasts starkly with the figures used by Frontier Economics in their recent study of the proposed Severn Barrage, which shows solar power still massively uncompetitive. So how, other than the obvious optimism of renewables advocates for their subject, does Clean Edge get to their conclusion?
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Britain might be still debating what to do about nuclear power, but Brazil is apparently in no doubt. An article in People’s Daily Online reports the President of state-owned Electronuclear as stating that the country will be building four new nuclear power stations with a total capacity of 6,000 MW. Brazil already has two nuclear plants operational and is building a third.

An email from the USAEE states that they are starting a working papers series. The papers will be stored on the Social Science Research Network web site. There doesn’t appear to be anything there at the moment, but perhaps that is because no one has submitted any papers. We’ll keep an eye on it.

The French financial regulator, AMF, has approved a merger between Gaz de France and Suez. The merger is now free to go ahead provided that it receives shareholder approval at a meeting on July 22nd. According to a Platts report, the new company, to be called GdF Suez, will be the world’s fourth largest energy utility by market capitalization, behind only Gazprom (Russia), EdF (France) and E.ON (Germany). The company will control 25% of Europe’s LNG market. It is not clear what effect the merger will have on the European Commission’s ongoing anti trust investigation into GdF.

The latest idea from British Energy is that, instead of selling of the company as a single unit, they will enter into a series of joint ventures with different companies over individual power stations. The idea may have some merit. Although Iberdrola have formally withdrawn their interest in buying the company, they are apparently still keen to invest in nuclear power in the UK. E.ON, RWE, Centrica, Scottish & Southern and, of course, EdF are all believed to have similar interests. Whether the joint venture idea will net British Energy the sort of money that they are not getting from EdF’s rejected bid is another matter.

The folks at UCEI Berkeley have just issued their latest Energy Notes newsletter. It can be found online here. The contents cover:

• The search for new sources of geothermal energy
• Non-traditional sources of oil
• New developments in wind turbine design

Conservation groups in the UK have been delighted today by a report that they commissioned from Frontier Economics proving that a barrage across the Severn Estuary is one of the least economic ways of helping the UK meet its targets for renewable generation. The report is available online, so we took a look to see what numbers Frontier had come up with.
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The European Commission has begun formal proceedings against E.ON and Gaz de France, alleging that the two companies colluded to restrict competition in each other’s national gas markets. An anti-trust investigation has been ongoing for some time, but this new development means that actual charges of wrongdoing have been filed against the two companies who must now defend themselves or risk being subject to substantial fines. Further details from Platts and the BBC.