Weekend press round-up: Questions raised over Chinese involvement in Hinkley

In our latest round-up of the weekend papers, senior Tories demand a review into Chinese involvement in the construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset, and a new report suggests installing overhead charging cables on motorways to help decarbonise road freight.

Tories demand review of Chinese involvement at Hinkley nuclear site

Senior Conservatives are this weekend demanding a review of the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant after a Sunday Telegraph investigation found a Chinese state energy company is more closely involved in the project than previously disclosed.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said he believes that ministers had been misled when they approved the role of China General Nuclear in the £22.5 billion reactor. Theresa May’s government was assured in 2016 the Beijing-controlled company would be a financial partner only when it took a 33.5 per cent stake in Hinkley alongside the lead developer, France’s EDF.

The Sunday Telegraph found conflicting statements from the Chinese and the French over the number of Chinese workers on the site. CGN has said it has “more than 100 engineers and technical experts working on Hinkley”, while EDF has put the number at between 20 and 30. Both companies this weekend declined to comment.

Corporate and project sources said CGN’s role goes beyond financial support, with EDF leaning heavily on Chinese technical expertise. “Of course, we work closely with the Chinese,” said one project source.

The collaboration has become so close that CGN has warned EDF New Nuclear Build, the division responsible for building Hinkley, not to share commercially sensitive information with its sister company EDF Energy, which operates nuclear sites across Europe.

Sir Iain said: “It was obviously never just going to be a financial partnership. This information tells you everything you need to know to back the call to have an independent, strategic review into our dependency on China.”

Nick Timothy, who tried unsuccessfully as Mrs May’s top adviser to block the Chinese deal, said: “Hinkley Point was supposed to involve French expertise and Chinese investment, and even then it was a bad deal on several fronts.

“If it is true that China has a significant operational role at Hinkley then there are many questions that need to be answered.

“Is this consistent with what ministers signed off in 2016? Have these employees been given full security clearance? By whom are they employed? Has EDF been fully transparent with the British government?”

The Telegraph

‘E-highways’ could slash UK road freight emissions, says study

The UK could eliminate the majority of the carbon dioxide emissions from road freight by installing overhead charging cables for electric lorries on “e-highways” across the country, a report by government-funded academics suggests.

The plan for a so-called electric road system would cost £19.3 billion and put all but the most remote parts of the UK within reach of the trucks by the late 2030s, with the potential for the investment to pay for itself within 15 years, according to the report by the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight. The centre is backed by government research grants and industry partners including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and John Lewis.

The catenary cables, powered by the national electricity grid, would link to lorries driving in the inside lanes on 4,300 miles (7,000km) of UK roads through an extendable rig known as a pantograph – similar to those on the top of electric trains. The electricity would power the lorry’s electric motor, as well as recharging an onboard electric battery that would power them to their destinations beyond the electrified roads.

The engineering company Siemens and the lorrymaker Scania have already carried out extensive tests of e-highway electric road systems in Germany, Sweden and the US.

Officials from the UK’s Department for Transport were scheduled to visit the test sites in Germany in March, but the trip was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The road freight sector is a large contributor to the climate crisis, accounting for 5% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, according to government figures, as well as pollutants from diesel engines that harm human health. Road transport was the sector with the largest increase in global greenhouse gas emissions over the last decade, according to the Committee on Climate Change, which recommended on-road charging for lorries in its latest report to parliament.

Battery-powered electric lorries and vans are already viable options for the short-range deliveries in urban areas that make up about a third of road freight usage. However, the other two-thirds – long-haul deliveries by lorries – are difficult to decarbonise because of range and weight requirements. The lithium ion batteries used in electric cars do not currently have a high enough energy density to be viable for long-distance haulage, meaning trucks such as Tesla’s planned Semi could require tonnes of batteries, denting their efficiency and raising their cost.

In contrast, a lorry fitted for electric roads would only require a battery of similar size to an existing Tesla car to be able to cover the vast majority of the UK, according to David Cebon, a professor of mechanical engineering at Cambridge University who co-authored the study.

Multiple lorrymakers are developing lorries running on hydrogen fuel cells, but the authors of the study argue that “green” hydrogen trucks would use three times more energy than an electric road system. This is because energy is lost at every conversion: using solar energy to make hydrogen and then a fuel cell to generate electricity again.

The electric road system would also have a major advantage over alternatives in that it would be possible to tax the electricity used by lorries, enabling the government to easily replace revenues lost from taxing diesel fuel, the report said.

The Guardian

Double glazing firms hit out over Sunak’s insulation plans

Double-glazing salesmen say Rishi Sunak’s green homes giveaway has backfired and put more than 10,000 jobs at risk.

The Green Homes Grant Scheme was announced earlier this month but will not come into force until September, landing a massive blow on the industry because potential buyers are holding off until it starts, bosses said.

Homeowners and landlords will be able to claim up to £5,000 for work to improve the energy efficiency of their property, with £10,000 grants available to those on low incomes.

But firms such as Duraflex, Eurocell and Deceuninck said holding back the launch had hit their sales by more than a quarter.

In a letter to the Chancellor, the firms said: “Large numbers of customers have cancelled existing orders … the Government’s announcement has imperilled the entire sector.”

The letter urges Mr Sunak to remove uncertainty by either leaving double-glazing out of the scheme or making it effective immediately.

Jon Vanstone, chairman of the Certass Trade Association, said 10,000 small traders “will be severely hit” by “unintended consequences” of the announcement.

The Telegraph

Utility Week’s weekend press round-up is a curation of articles in the national newspapers relating to the energy and water sector. The views expressed are not those of Utility Week or Faversham House.