Scottish Power plans to double the size of its hydroelectric power plant near Oban, adding 400 megawatts of on-demand electricity to the grid. The Cruachan plant will generate electricity by letting water flow downhill during peak demand when power prices are high and pumping it uphill at night when wind energy is cheap. Recognising the need for more storage capacity as renewables increase, the pumped hydro system is estimated to store the same as seven million car batteries. Scottish Power says it will accept a cap on profits in exchange for a guaranteed floor price for generated energy, which it says is necessary to get the £300-400 million project off the ground. The Financial Times has more on the story.

A provisional forecast from the National Grid suggests Britain faces three months of power shortages this coming winter, reported The Telegraph this weekend. Figures in an annual report produced for power station operators forecasts a power deficit rather than surplus in December, January and February. Lisa Nandy, the shadow energy secretary, said the government’s failure to get new gas plants built meant pushing Britain’s power supply “into the red”, leaving it reliant on emergency measures and imports to prevent blackouts. National Grid has confirmed this is the first time it has forecast a “negative margin” but is playing down the prospect of future supply problems since the figures don’t include the 3.6GW from reserve plants or imports. The director of energy policy at Scottish Power told The Times managing next winter could be “very challenging” with cold weather likely to exacerbate the situation further.

The EU has shelved plans to introduce restrictions on energy-inefficient toasters for fear it could galvanise support for Britain to leave the EU, reports The Guardian. This follows similar stories over the weekend in The Independent and The Financial Times about delays to regulating super-strength kettles for fear of pushing “disgruntled Brits over the edge”. Measures to reform a range of other appliances including mobile phones, lifts, hairdryers and vending machines had been expected to save the equivalent of 10m tonnes of CO2 emissions per year by 2030, says The Guardian.

In what’s being hailed as a major turnaround for an organisation typically regarded as a supporter of fossil fuel energy, Energy UK will begin campaigning for low carbon alternatives. The UK’s biggest energy lobbying group now officially supports the phase-out of coal-fired power stations and is critical of the government’s cuts to wind and solar subsidies. The shift is urgent in order not to be left behind, says chief executive Lawrence Slade: “No one wants to be running the next Nokia.” Carbon Brief exclusively reported Slade’s comments that the UK needs a German-style ‘Energiewende’ ahead of the launch of Energy UK’s Pathways to 2030 report last week.

Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar last night for The Revenant, using his acceptance speech to warn about the effects of climate change. Picking up the award for best actor, he said: “Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take this night for granted”. Talking to The Guardian backstage, DiCaprio called climate change the “most existential crisis our civilisation has ever known”, adding that those who vote against modern science in the upcoming US election “will be on the wrong side of history”.

Sir Paul Nurse, former president of the Royal Society, has said the UK leaving the EU would make it harder to get funding for science and sell “future generations short”. Joined at a news briefing by other research leaders making the case for Britain to remain inside the EU, Nurse called the decision a “no brainer” in terms of the influence in directing top class research. The article also features London doctor, Prof Angus Dalgleish, who is the spokesman for “Scientists For Britain”, a group of researchers arguing the case for an EU exit. Five out of the 10 top research centres receiving EU funding are in the UK and 13 per cent of leading university research comes from Europe, says Sir Robert Lechler, president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, in The Independent.

A few feathers might be ruffled by the RSPB’s decision to build a 330ft turbine above its own headquarters in Bedfordshire, reports the Daily Mail. The charity says it has worked on three years of research to rule out threats to birds and bats, with director of conservation, Martin Harper, saying: “Climate change is the single biggest threat to our planet. This is about birds and wildlife as well as our way of life.” RSPB’s bird-friendly wind turbine ‘will cut carbon emissions by 800 tons a year’, reads the headline in the Independent. The Telegraph also has the story.

The FT writes in an editorial: “Large oil companies have been working hard to live in a world of $50 crude, cutting thousands of jobs, and slashing their investment budgets. It is still an open question, though, whether they will be able to fund the new projects they need to keep themselves from gradually withering away. One answer is to seize the opportunity in climate policy. Big oil companies are as much gas companies, and there is still enormous potential for cutting carbon dioxide emissions by shifting power generation from coal to gas. Another escape route could be investing more in renewable energy, although the record of diversification by oil companies is generally dire.”

Despite receiving suspended sentences rather than prison time, the harsh treatment of the “Heathrow 13” protestors may yet backfire, say two researchers in Political Sociology. The judge’s threat to impose the maximum sentence succeeded in producing a wave of sympathetic media coverage and a sustained show of solidarity, turning the trial into a political event. This plus the knowledge that causing more damage is likely to secure a jury trial rather than a magistrate, which are typically more sympathetic in such cases, could trigger a wave of climate disobedience this year.

Shale development in Europe may be virtually non-existent but the bloc’s failure to develop its shale resources is not typical of the story worldwide, says Nick Butler. It would be mistaken to think that low oil and gas prices had grounded US shale gas production or that the revolution there was over. Far from it, he says. The US shale industry has adapted very successfully, given the scale of price falls over the last 18 months, and there is every chance of it increasing again in response to any price rises.

It’s been an “absurdly warm” winter at the top of the world, says Geoffrey Lean, with rapidly disappearing ice possibly about to set a new record. While most attention has been focused on the increasingly low minimum level in September, the amount by which the sea ice recovers each winter is at least as important and could be approaching a new record low. While scientists are not ready to call it just yet, a week of warm weather forecast means they “privately believe it is almost certain.”

Declining Arctic sea ice is causing the Greenland ice sheet to melt more quickly, a new study suggests. Using observed data and model simulations, the researchers show that reduced Arctic summer sea ice causes stronger and more frequent occurrences of high pressure “blocking” weather patterns over Greenland. These weather conditions pull warm, moist air over Greenland, the researchers say, contributing to ice sheet melt.

The cost of damage caused by rising sea levels is likely to increase more quickly than sea levels themselves, a new study says. The researchers derive a set of “surprisingly simple” mathematical functions to estimate average annual monetary damages of future sea level rise. Using an example of Copenhagen in Denmark, the results suggest that just 11cm of sea level rise by mid-century could double economic losses in the city, assuming no improvements in coastal defences.