There will still be a need to have gas in the wings to keep the lights on, so the financials stack up on Severn plant purchase
The eye-catching non-Hormuz news in energy-land last month was that Great Britain is set for a record-breaking summer for wind and solar power generation. The national energy system operator even thought there could be periods – a sunny weekend or a bank holiday afternoon of low demand, for example – when more renewable power would be available than the electricity grid needed.
So, on the face of it, it is an odd moment for Centrica, the owner of British Gas, to fork out £370m to buy a 16-year-old combined-cycle gas turbine plant in south Wales. After all, the government’s clean power plan imagines that, come 2030, Great Britain’s entire fleet of gas plants will be used to generate only 5% of its electricity, down from 31.5% in 2025.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/07/2026 - 13:15
05/07/2026 - 13:06
Sir David Attenborough has released an audio message thanking the public for the flood of goodwill messages sent in the run-up to his 100th birthday. The veteran broadcaster said he had expected to celebrate quietly, but expressed gratitude for the well-wishes he had received. Attenborough, who was born on 8 May 1926, joined the BBC in 1952 and went on to become one of the world's most respected and influential wildlife presenters
Tiny parasitic wasp named after David Attenborough for his 100th birthday
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05/07/2026 - 12:08
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05/07/2026 - 08:58
A trip to a museum becomes an unexpected adventure in a new immersive family show by Theatre-Rites and Factory International
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05/07/2026 - 07:00
US war with Iran drives diesel fuel prices up during spring planting season, ‘hitting us at the wrong time’, farmers say
It has been a tough few years for American farmers.
Squeezed last year by tariffs, they lost an estimated $34.6bn when former trade partners stopped buying. Now, the war with Iran has not only depleted crucial fertilizer stores but has also driven diesel fuel up to record prices. Like the trucking industry, agriculture relies heavily on diesel to run machinery, as diesel-powered engines are more fuel efficient than gasoline-powered ones.
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05/07/2026 - 06:30
Windfall profits could lock in Trump-era political wins for the industry and slow clean-energy transition
The billions in profits big oil is reaping due to the Iran war may stymie the energy transition, experts and advocates fear, incentivizing oil and gas expansion and boosting the sector’s funds for political lobbying.
“Windfall profits from Trump’s war will allow big oil to build a wall of money around its Trump-era political victories,” said Lukas Shankar-Ross, a deputy director at the green group Friends of the Earth.
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05/07/2026 - 06:00
Debate continues to rage over whether a strange carcass found in 1937 was a new species or a basking shark. Either way, the case reveals how little is known about what lies beneath the waves
Its head resembled a dog’s, its downturned nose a camel’s, and at the end of its reptilian body was the tail of a horse. Witnesses say it was covered in a thin white film. When the remains of a strange creature were pulled from the stomach of a sperm whale, most of those present agreed: it was a sea monster – or at least something unknown living in the depths off Canada’s west coast.
Crews at the whaling station in the archipelago of Haida Gwaii assembled a platform of wooden boxes and laid out the 3-metre (10ft) carcass, using a white sheet to display the curiosity that had baffled veteran whalers.
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05/07/2026 - 05:00
Powerful radar system is providing new data on city’s subsidence, which experts hope will draw more attention to it
Walking into Mexico City’s sprawling central Zócalo is a dizzying experience. At one end of the plaza, the capital’s cathedral, with its soaring spires, slumps in one direction. An attached church, known as the Metropolitan Sanctuary, tilts in the other. The nearby National Palace also seems off-kilter.
The teetering of many of the capital’s historic buildings is the most visible sign of a phenomenon that has been ongoing for more than a century: Mexico City is sinking at an alarming rate.
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05/07/2026 - 02:17
Local beekeeper Mitch McLennan says hive thefts have become ‘quite commonplace’ due to rise of parasitic varroa mites
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Police are searching for thieves who allegedly stole $150,000 worth of beehives from a rural property in the New South Wales northern tablelands, with a local apiarist saying they may well have been taken by a fellow beekeeper.
Eighty beehive boxes containing active colonies were taken from a property on Bruxner Way, 15km west of Bonshaw and 100km north-west of Glen Innes. NSW police believe the alleged theft occurred sometime between Tuesday 31 March and Wednesday 6 May.
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05/07/2026 - 01:14
Firm benefits from conflict to rake in $6.9bn as higher energy prices turbocharge profits
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Shell has reported better than expected profits of $6.9bn (£5bn) after its oil traders reaped the benefits of soaring energy prices during the war in Iran, angering climate campaigners.
Europe’s biggest oil and gas company posted a 115% jump in first-quarter profits from the $3.2bn reported in the last three months of 2025.
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