It’s a mechanical problem that’s troubled scientists since Archimedes and the ancient Greeks but now an electrician has come up with a new invention that could help save consumers thousands of pounds in energy bills. Scotsman Ian Gilmartin, 60, and his friend Bob Cattley, 58, both from Kendal, Cumbria have invented a mini-waterwheel capable of supplying enough electricity to power a house for free.  The contraption is designed to be used in small rivers or streams - ideal for potentially thousands of homes across Britain. It is the first off-the-shelf waterwheel system which can generate a good supply of electricity from a water fall as little as 20cm. Mr Gilmartin, an electrician and inventor, was not prompted to think up his new device by high energy bills he does not own a TV and has never lived in a house with electricity. But he has a stream at the back of his house, the Beck Mickle, and with the help of Phd engineering student, Mr Cattley, now hopes to see the invention in the shops by the end of next year.  Mr Gilmartin first began experimenting three years ago with yoghurt pots and wheelie bins in the stream, before test-running a proto-type. They took the results to the Lake District National Park, and secured a £15,000 grant from the organisation’s sustainability fund. The prototype has now been working successfully at St Catherine’s, a National Trust site near Windermere, opening up previously untapped energy. The waterwheel produces one to two kilowatts of power and generates at least 24 kilowatt hours of sustainable green energy in a day, just under the average household’s daily consumption of around 28 kilowatt hours.  It will hope to cost around £2,000 to fully install and will pay for itself in side two years.  The Beck Mickle ‘low head’ micro hydro generator could potentially provide electricity to more than 50,000 British homes and could be used industrially.  Mr Gilmartin said: “While we cannot say this provides free electricity, because of the initial cost of buying the machine, it is expected to pay for itself within two years and then greatly reduce the owner’s electricity bills after then.”  Waterwheels of various types have been known since Roman times and hydropower was widely used in the Middle Ages, powering most industry in Europe. But the energy produced from the flow of water depends on the height, or head, that the water falls. A ‘high head’ like a traditional water-wheel, is large, expensive and needs civil engineering. But with ‘low heads’ under a 18 inches, no one had yet invented a method of successfully recovering the energy generated. Researchers have long sought out low cost technology to exploit the vast number of suitable low head hydro sites as a source of renewable energy.

A conventional waterwheel allows the water to escape prematurely as the wheel rotates, but the Beck Mickle Hydro generator contains the water for the full drop of the device, converting around 70 per cent of the energy into electricity. Mr Gilmartin explained, “This idea started off to answer the question, ‘How do you recover energy from very, very low heads of fluid?’ “With a low head there is not very much flow, no velocity, the fluid has got to have speed, and the only way of doing it is with a water wheel, but they are big and expensive and need lots of civil engineering.

“I have come up with an answer and I don’t know why anyone has not thought of it before.” Mr Gilmartin added: “You have to have a good reason for not having one. There are enormous possibilities wherever there are water flows.”

Gas prices in Europe are expected to soar tomorrow if crucial talks in Moscow between Russian giant Gazprom and the Belarus government collapse. There are fears that soaring energy prices across Europe could have a knock-on effect on domestic fuel costs in Britain. Russia has told Belarus that unless it pays another 123% for gas by tomorrow, supplies to its hardline Communist neighbour will be cut. However, Belarus has warned that such a move would force it to close Russian gas pipelines running through its territory to the West 20% of western Europe’s gas supplies pass through Belarus. Gas supplies to the UK are plentiful at the moment, but a sharp rise in European prices would affect the future cost of gas and this could mean planned price cuts in Britain would have to be postponed.

The energy regulator has warned gas suppliers not to fail to pass on a recent drop in wholesale prices to consumers. “As prices are falling and we have this uncomfortable lag between the wholesale price and the retail price (we are warning companies) if we start to feel through 2007 that you are wanting to keep some of the jam on your fingers, then we have very stringent powers under the Competition Act,” Ofgem Chief Executive Alistair Buchanan was quoted as saying in an interview published on Sunday.  Gas prices have fallen in recent months on the back of rising supply via new import pipelines.  “Even if we had the coldest day that we had last year, we arguably would have 20 percent surplus capacity to meet (demand on that day,” Buchanan was quoted saying in the Sunday Telegraph.

Belarus and Russia have traded accusations of “blackmail” in their dispute over gas prices. Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom wants to raise the price Belarus pays by 123%, threatening a cut-off at 0700 GMT on New Year’s Day. While negotiations continue in Moscow, however, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has said he will not agree to the price rise.  The stand-off could see a reduction in supplies to Europe. It echoes a fierce row last year between Russia and Ukraine, and comes as Russia is pushing up prices for many of its customers. “Belarus won’t bow to Gazprom’s blackmail,” Mr Lukashenko said, according to Belarus state news agency BeITA. “If they keep putting pressure on us we will go down into the bunkers, but we will not surrender.” Earlier on Friday, Gazprom vice-president Alexander Medvedev was quoted by France’s Le Figaro newspaper as calling Belarus’s tactics of warning of shortages in Europe a “grotesque blackmail”. Talks are due to continue on Saturday after the sides failed to reach an agreement on Friday. Russia has been accused of using its energy muscle to reimpose its will on what is sometimes called Russia’s “near abroad” - the countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. Although some of the targeted countries, such as Ukraine and Georgia, have strained relations with the Kremlin, Belarus has historically remained an ally throughout the post-Soviet period. Gazprom insists the planned rise from $47 to $105 merely reflects market prices. However, as has been the case with Belarus, the price rises are often coupled to demands for shared ownership of those countries’ gas or oil distribution networks. A half-share in Belarus’ gas monopoly Beltransgaz, which operates its own pipelines and Gazprom’s export pipeline, is up for grabs but only, says the government in Minsk, if the price of gas stays lower. Russia’s gas customers, meanwhile, are urging that a deal be struck as soon as possible. Europe, in particular which gets about 5% of its supplies via Belarus, accounting for a fifth of the country’s exports is keen to avoid a repeat of the gas shortages which accompanied the Russia-Ukraine dispute. At that time, Gazprom accused Ukraine of siphoning off gas meant for Europe, and is now warning Belarus against doing the same thing.

Wind energy in the UK has broken all records in 2006 according to BWEA. The campaigning body claim that 2006 has been the most productive and successful year for the sector since the country’s first commercial wind farm started generating 15 years ago. A record breaking 630 new megawatts (MW) of wind energy have been commissioned in 2006: an increase of 50% on performance of 2005, which in turn saw a 100% increase on capacity commissioned in 2004. The countdown has now begun to the UK’s second gigawatt of installed capacity only 18 months after commissioning its first firmly positioning the wind industry as a key player in the UK energy market and the UK wind industry in the top ten players globally.  And in a move which is likely to arouse the suspicions of environmentalists, BP is to join the BWEA early in the new year. Shell has been a member for some years and other big power producers, such as Centrica, owner of British Gas, E.ON of Germany and Scottish Power, have also joined. Britain’s biggest oil company is going to make sure it has influence inside the BWEA by becoming a “sponsor member”, which means it will have a seat on the board. BP’s close links with the government have made it an especially desirable ally in the eyes of the wind energy movement.

Green campaigners are suspicious of the global giant which talks about green issues but invests little. According to the Guardian, neither BWEA nor BP was willing to comment. BP has no wind farms in Britain and very few such assets outside, apart from a couple of experimental plants in the Netherlands. But it established an alternative energy division last year and has set itself ambitious targets to develop solar and other operations.  Wind energy is officially the fastest growing energy source world wide, with an average annual growth rate of 23% over the last 15 years. And in the UK, with some of the best winds in the world, this trend is very evident. According to BWEA a record number of homes will be powered by the wind this winter, with turbines in the UK generating sufficient electricity to meet the needs of over a million households or to boil enough water for two billion cups of tea.

World oil prices appeared to be ending the year on a softer note with investors focusing on the mild winter in the US to bid prices lower. Significantly, crude oil prices were about 23% below the record highs over 78 usd a barrel in July and August. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, dropped 12 cents to 60.41 dollars per barrel in electronic deals before the official opening of the US market. In London, Brent North Sea crude for February delivery also lost 12 cents to reach 60.55 dollars in electronic trading. Oil prices have tumbled since rocketing to record highs during the northern hemisphere summer, owing to unrest in the oil-rich Middle East and supply disruptions. In July, light sweet crude hit a peak of 78.40 usd per barrel in New York. In August, Brent North Sea crude reached an all-time high of 78.64 usd per barrel in London.  These levels put oil prices 20 dollars higher compared with the start of 2006 and four times higher compared with 2002. However they have since dived owing to high levels of US energy inventories and mild temperatures in the United States, while traders are beginning to overlook unrest in oil producing countries such as Nigeria and Iran. On Friday, “crude futures were slightly lower as market participants square positions before the long weekend, amid mild weather conditions in the US”, Sucden analyst Michael Davies said. World oil prices had firmed only slightly on Thursday, despite a massive drop in stockpiles of US crude last week. The US Department of Energy said Thursday that crude oil stockpiles slid 8.1 million barrels to 321 million in the week ended December 22. The drawdown was much steeper than the 2.5-million-barrel decline expected by Wall Street analysts.  “The fact that the market hardly responded to the report suggests that most market participants are far more concerned by the milder weather in the US, which is expected to continue throughout the rest of the winter,” Davies added. The DoE report also showed that levels of distillate products, which include heating oil, increased 500,000 barrels to 133.6 million over the week, in line with most forecasts.  Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist with Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo, meanwhile said Friday that he expected the market to continue its downward slide next year, adding that people were unlikely to see 78-dollar oil again for years to come.  “Most of the people are quite bullish. I’m kind of a contrarian,” Emori said, forecasting that prices could drop below 40 dollars in 2007.  “The downside risk is much bigger,” he said, citing bullish expectations for the dollar, limited growth in demand and increased availability of oil sands and other biofuel products.

Belarus has said that it expects a gas price dispute with Russia, which threatens to disrupt European supplies, to be resolved before the New Year. Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said the price of Russian gas should be agreed by 1st January. But he warned that Minsk would not allow the transit of gas to European consumers if a deal was not reached.  Russia’s state-owned Gazprom has vowed to cut off gas to Belarus on 1st January unless a 134% price rise is accepted. The EU called for an agreement and said it was monitoring the situation.  Russian gas passes through Belarus via a pipeline on its way to other parts of Europe, and a shutdown could put those supplies at risk. Belarus has repeatedly said that its gas-pricing contract is entwined with its agreement to let Gazprom use its pipelines.

The world’s oldest operating nuclear reactors will be taken out of action on Sunday when British Nuclear Group closes Dungeness A and Sizewell A. The reactors, which have been producing electricity for 40 years, are being decommissioned partly because increased safety inspection demands will render them no longer cost effective. Their lives have also been shortened because a reprocessing plant at Sellafield, which is necessary to make their spent fuel safe, is itself due to close in a few years.  The closure of the reactors will further dent the finances of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which is suffering after the Government decided not to make up a shortfall caused by a loss of revenue from commercial operations.The authority receives about half its £2 billion income from work carried out by BNG, whose assets it owns. The income comes from generation and from reprocessing clean-up work. Last year the Magnox fleet generated £514 million for the authority. BNG said that the two stations that are to close are capable of producing enough electricity for all of the UK’s domestic customers. The closure of Sizewell A in Suffolk and Dungeness A in Kent will leave just two Magnox reactors in the country Oldbury, in Gloucestershire, and Wylfa, on Anglesey, North Wales. In recent years, Britain’s Magnox stations, which produce electricity using heated magnesium alloy, have been overtaken by newer technology, first in advanced gas reactors and then in Britain’s only pressurised water reactor at Sizewell B. The world’s first nuclear reactor was a Magnox reactor Calder Hall, which opened on the Sellafield site in 1956. That plant closed three years ago. The other Magnox reactors that have closed are: Berkeley, in Gloucestershire; Hunterston A, in Ayrshire; Hinkley Point, in Somerset; Trawsfynydd, in Gwynedd, North Wales; Bradwell, in Essex; and Chapelcross, in Dumfriesshire.

Last week, Berkeley achieved partial delicensing as it continues its decommissioning. This means that a large section of land is considered safe enough to make it available for reuse. The Magnox fleet was put into British Nuclear Fuels Ltd when the newer part of the nuclear industry was privatised in the form of British Energy. The bulk of BNFL has now been renamed as BNG and soon will be privatised in a four-way split. However, private contractors will be able to bid only for management contracts rather than assets in the break-up of the operation. Last week it began the process of selling its reactor sites management business. The management of the sites will deal with both generation at the two remaining sites and decommissioning at the others. The electricity trading division has also been put up for sale.

BG Group has expanded its electricity generation business in the US with the $685m (£350m) acquisition of a power plant in Connecticut. The company announced yesterday that it had bought the Lake Road power plant, an 805MW gas and oil-fired station in Dayville.  “The Lake Road plant supplies power into the ISO New England, a well established and liquid power market. It is a modern three-unit facility with the potential for further expansion,” a spokesman said. In October, BG acquired another plant in the New England region, the 170MW Dighton facility in Massachusetts. BG said the New England plant was attractive because of the newly implemented “Forward Capacity Market”, a policy that limits new plants, and the “rapidly tightening reserve margins in the region”. Martin Houston, managing director of BG North America, said: “The acquisition of Lake Road represents an important step in the implementation of our integrated US strategy. Lake Road and Dighton have the potential to offer BG attractive returns and will be readily integrated into our growing US gas business.”

In the US, BG is already a significant importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and it is also active in trade gas. Branching out into downstream business, such as power generation, is part of the “integrated” approach the company has taken in the US. BG owns all the capacity rights, through to 2028, at North America’s largest operating LNG importation terminal, Lake Charles in Louisiana. This facility has the capability to receive, store, vapourise and deliver an average daily send-out of 1.8 billion cubic feet (bcf/d). Additionally, the company holds supply and regasification rights of 446 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) for 22 years at the Elba Island LNG terminal near Savannah, Georgia. Expansion work is expected to increase its throughput capacity to 1.17 bcf/d from 2012.  Although BG is mainly an exploration and production group, it does have electricity generation interests in several countries, including the UK. It has a total of 2.75 Gigawatts of power generation, including, in the UK, the Seabank 1130MW power joint venture, and it wholly owns the 600MW Premier Power plant. It also has interests in a 760MW plant in Malaysia, a 1,000MW power station in the Philippines and a 400MW facility in Italy.

The EU has urged Russia and Belarus to end their gas price dispute, amid concerns that consumers across Europe could be affected. Russia’s state-owned Gazprom has vowed to cut off gas to Belarus on 1 January unless a 134% price rise is accepted. Russian gas passes through Belarus via pipeline on its way to other parts of Europe, and a shutdown could put supplies at risk. The EU’s Andris Piebalgs said Brussels was following the situation closely. “I call on the two parties to reach as soon as possible a satisfactory agreement that does not put in question gas transits to the EU,” said Mr Piebalgs, the EU’s energy commissioner.  Belarus currently pays $47 per 1,000 cubic metres for the gas it imports from Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas monopoly. Gazprom wants to increase this to $110. It also wants Belarus to hand over a 50% share of the country’s distribution network, including a valuable transit pipeline which supplies gas to Poland and Germany. Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller has said that unless Belarus agrees, the firm will end gas supplies from 0700 GMT on New Year’s Day. Russia says its neighbours have been paying below-market rates and these now need to be brought into line with European prices.  A clash between Ukraine and Russia over pricing last winter was blamed for a surge in UK consumer gas bills. Last week, Georgia agreed to pay $235 for 1,000 cubic metres of gas, more than twice the previous price of $110. Moscow has also renegotiated its gas contract with Bulgaria, which will see the latter pay up to 45% more for its gas imports over the next five years. Critics argue Moscow is using strong-arm tactics to consolidate its economic supremacy in the region, at a time when high demand for energy and fears of supply shortages have strengthened its position as Europe’s leading gas supplier. The dispute has strained relations between Russia and Belarus, which are traditional allies.  Last week, Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, met in an effort to resolve the issue, but made little progress.