Damian's energy dispatch

Energydesk

Water shortages limiting Chinese coal fuelled growth
China is increasingly using coal not just for power - but also for chemicals more commonly made from oil. But a Greenpeace investigation has found water pollution and shortages as a result. Indeed reports suggest the growth of coal in  China could be limited by a lack of water..

To Frack or not to Frack - what is happening in Sussex?
The drillers have moved in, and the protestors have followed them but there won't be any fracking in Sussex right now. We investigate what is happening in Balcombe. Are Cuadrilla really looking for tight oil?

UK

Energy efficiency squads to visit homes
Squads of insulators and energy-efficiency experts are to be sent house to house around the UK, in the latest stage of the government's bid to plug the gaps in Britain's leaky homes and curb rising bill - reports The Guardian.

Payments for gas plants could keep them shut
The chief of one of the UK's biggest energy companies has warned that payments to keep gas plants online could have the rather perverse outcome of incentivising people to mothball them - so they can then bring them back.

Green economy grows - but the statistics need work
The UK's 'low carbon' economy grew by 5% in 2012, but the statistics have been criticised for failing to accurately reflect the sector - and potentially inflating it's growth. 

WORLD

China to unveil pollution plan 
China is preparing to unveil a landmark £180 billion anti-pollution package to fight the toxic smog that has enveloped swathes of the country - according to the Telegraph. The plan will look at reducing emissions and boosting energy efficiency. Pollution is an increasingly political issue in the world's largest economy. 

EON gets fed up of EU, plans to move plants
Fed up of losing money in the European Union German power giant E.ON has made the unusual suggestion that it will dismantle it's loss-making gas plants and move them to somewhere more lucrative, like Turkey. 

European investment bank halts lending to dirty coal
The world's largest public lender is to adopt a standard that would stop it lending to particularly dirty coal plants. 

Will arctic melting dramatically speed up climate change?
Carbon brief reports on disagreement amongst leading scientists on how likely it is that the melting arctic could suddenly release large quantities of the potent greenhouse gas methane, dramatically accelerating global warming.