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The British government is working on the development of a new carbon emissions tax to replace the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). UK domestic power generation companies currently have to pay £18/tCO2 (€20/tCO2) for their emissions as per the UK carbon floor policy on top of the EU carbon allowances, which currently stand close to £15/tCO2 (€17/tCO2). The two levies cost UK power companies around £33/tCO2 (€37/tCO2) for their emissions.

If an agreement is signed with the European Union, the United Kingdom will remain a member of the EU’s ETS scheme until at least 2021. The current £18/tCO2 tax would remain frozen in 2020 and 2021. The government would then introduce a carbon tax set at the level of the ETS and would increase it steadily in future years.

If Brexit negotiators fail to strike a proper agreement with the EU before the end of March 2019, the United Kingdom would leave the EU ETS. The government would then introduce a £16/tCO2 (about €18/tCO2) domestic carbon tax, which would apply to stationary installations currently in the EU ETS. It is expected to help the country achieve its carbon pricing commitments via a domestic economy-wide tax system.

The Hiroshima District Court (Japan) has rejected a call from local residents to block the restart of the 846 MWe Ikata-3 nuclear reactor in Ehime prefecture (Japan). This decision paves the way for its owner, the Japanese power utility Shikoku Electric Power, to restart the pressurized water reactor (PWR) and resume commercial operation again by the end of November 2018.

The fourth unit of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in Lianyungang, in China’s Jiangsu province, has been connected to the Chinese power grid. It is now scheduled to start generating electricity by the end of 2018 and enter commercial operation in March 2019. Once operational, the unit will have a total net capacity of 990 MW (1,126 MW gross).

According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the US power sector have fallen by 28% since 2005, due to the slower growth in electricity demand and to changes in the power generation fuel mix.

US oil and gas midstream company Phillips 66 Partners has expanded the projected capacity of the 700,000 bbl/d Gray Oak crude oil pipeline system to 900,000 bbl/d. The facility is under construction and slated to become operational by the end of 2019. Its capacity is supported by long-term, third-party, take-or-pay commitments.

Canadian company Pieridae Energy has secured financing of up to US$1.5bn for its 10 Mt/year liquefaction project in Goldboro, in Nova Scotia, on the East coast of Canada, from the German government’s UFK programme (Bundesgarantien für ungebundene Finanzkredite).

Innogy has selected US photovoltaic cells and solar panels manufacturer SunPower to supply Performance Series (P-Series) solar panels for its 349 MWp Limondale solar power plant in Balranald, New South Wales (Australia). The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and the operation and maintenance (O&M) services contracts have been awarded to innogy’s subsidiary Belectric.

Spanish energy group Iberdrola has inaugurated its 350 MW Wikinger offshore wind project located off the island of Rügen in the German part of the Baltic Sea. The wind park, which features 70 Siemens Gamesa AD 5-135 model 5 MW turbines and is already fully operational, is expected to account for 20% of the energy demand of the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (Germany).