PEi Connect provides a brief look at what got our attention during the week (10-17 June), and first up we focus on the G7 pledge to end new direct government support for unabated thermal coal power by the end of 2021 and the Pikachus that added momentum to the cause.
G7 Leaders tackle the coal question
Leaders of the countries attending the latest G7 Summit in Britain have pledged to invest more in climate-friendly technologies and end new government support for coal power by the end of this year. The leaders agreed: “We stress that international investments in unabated coal must stop now and we commit now to an end to new direct government support for unabated international thermal coal power generation by the end of 2021.”
However, the pledge was insufficient to soothe the concerns of activists, who believe the lack of defined timeframes prove this is merely lip service and won’t deliver tangible results soon enough. It seems even the giant Pikachus couldn’t increase the pressure and spur greater commitment from governments…
Chinese radiation leak
Reports have been surfacing about a radiation leak at Taishan Nuclear Power Station outside the city of Taishan in Guangdong, China. According to plant owner EDF, there has been an “increase in the concentration of certain noble gases in the primary circuit” in reactor number one at the power station. However, Chinese authorities have been accused of raising acceptable radiation limits around the power station, to avoid shutting the reactor down. Read more about this developing story.
Cooling towers get demolished
The demolition of the 117m-tall (384ft) towers at Rugeley Power Station in Staffordshire, England, took place on 6 June. Interestingly, each of the four towers could cool six million gallons of water in an hour. Equally interesting is that the video went viral quite quickly, indicating folks enjoy watching a controlled implosion.
On Bitcoin and clean energy…
It seems Elon Musk has once again caused a stir in Bitcoin markets after a comment stating Tesla would once again accept the currency if mined with clean energy.
Energy Markets Week
Catch PEi Editor Kelvin Ross participating in Energy Markets Week. He chaired a super interesting session on the role of industrial energy users in current Energy Markets.
You can watch this session on-demand or you can access all the other hot content from Energy Markets Week here.
Connect with us next week for another selection of interesting sector news. Until then, take care, stay safe and power on.
The PEi Ed team 🙂
