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4 | 12TH - 18TH FEBRUARY 2016 | UTILITY WEEK National media Ofgem grants licence to multi- million pound link Ofgem has granted asset manager Trans- mission Capital Partners the licence to own and operate the transmission link to Westermost Rough windfarm. £156.7m The cost of the high voltage link in the North Sea. 210MW Total capacity of the 35 wind turbines installed at Westermost Rough. £400m Saving to consumers of the tendering process for offshore connec- tions, according to Ofgem. 1 Project left in ten- der. Three rounds of the regime to complete. Ikea stops selling solar Ikea has stopped selling solar pan- els in the UK following drastic cuts in solar subsidies. A successful pilot at its Lakeside store in Essex meant a rollout across its 17 UK stores to offer solar panels. But in November last year the company quietly decided not to renew its contract with Hanergy – Ikea's technology partner head- quartered in Hong Kong. The Guardian, 8 February New York radioactive groundwater Radioactive material has leaked into groundwater around 40 miles north of Manhattan in New York. A state investigation is under- way into "alarming levels of radio- activity" found at three monitoring wells at the Indian Point energy centre. Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a letter: "Our first concern is for the health and safety of the residents close to the facility and ensuring the groundwater leak does not pose a threat." In one location, radioactivity levels rose nearly 65,000 per cent, to over 8,000,000 picocuries per litre. The Environmental Protection Agency's maximum contaminant level for tritium in drinking water is 20,000 picocuries per litre. Entergy, the company that owns the plant, stressed that drinking water was not contaminated. The Guardian, 6 February Obama wants to double clean energy investment US president Barack Obama wants to double investment in clean energy research and development to $12.8 billion by 2021. The move is part of a broader commitment to preventing the effects of climate change aer the climate talks in Paris in December. Bloomberg, 6 February STORY BY NUMBERS Fiddler's Ferry and Rugeley to close early Seven days... T he UK is a step closer to energy secretary Amber Rudd's vision of a coal-free future, as two major generators announced the early closure of coal-fired power stations, blam- ing market conditions. SSE last Thursday confirmed plans to close three of the four units at its Fiddler's Ferry power station, breaking its capacity contracts for 2018/19 and incur- ring a £33 million penalty. Days later, Engie announced the closure of its 1GW Rugeley power station in Staffordshire this summer. SSE attributed its decision to close three-quarters of Fiddler's Ferry, pending consultation, to "continuing challenging economic and environmental conditions for coal". In her energy "reset" speech in Novem- ber, Rudd pledged to phase out unabated coal-fired power from the UK generation mix by 2025. SSE was unable to secure capacity contracts for any of the units at Fiddler's Ferry for 2019/20, but did secure contracts for three of them for 2018/19, hence the penalties incurred by early closure of the station. Paul Smith, SSE's manag- ing director of generation, said: "The fact it makes more sense for SSE to contemplate making a substantial payment in lieu of the capacity agreement relating to Fiddler's Ferry in 2018/19 demonstrates just how economi- cally challenged Fiddler's Ferry has become – its losses are unsustainable." SSE said it would try to avoid any redundancies for the 213 employees who work at the plant by transferring them to other parts of the business. At Rugeley, 150 jobs are set to go, pending consultation. TG "If sufficient new-build is not coming through, the government will have to look again at whether 2025 is the right cut-off date" Drax chief executive Andy Koss issues a stark warning to ministers