UPDATE:UK Must Ramp Up New Nuclear To Secure Energy, Meet CO2 Goals
March 15 2012 - 10:17AM
Dow Jones News
The U.K. needs to ramp up construction of new nuclear power
plants to meet its ambitious 2050 targets on cutting greenhouse gas
emissions and secure the country's independence from oil and gas
imports and volatile prices, the U.K.'s former chief scientist said
Thursday.
The best energy mix for the U.K., which is facing growing gas
imports as domestic North Sea hydrocarbon reserves dwindle, is for
50% to 60% nuclear power by 2050 with gas, micro-generation, solar,
wind, energy efficiency and other low-carbon technologies
comprising the rest. This scenario assumes that transport and heat
is mostly electrified by then to cut emissions.
The U.K. government, which has legislated an 80% cut in
emissions by 2050 versus 1990, needs to come up with a long-term
energy strategy as soon as possible as the cost of energy imports
is creating a huge strain on the U.K. economy, said David King,
director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at
the University of Oxford.
"The market place is surprisingly weak at providing the energy
we need without a long-term strategy. If we invest incorrectly over
the next five years, we won't get the energy mix we need," said
King, who authored a report published Thursday on meeting the
targets.
King said that it's possible to place 27 new nuclear power
stations by 2050 on sites where there are already nuclear
facilities.
Public support for new nuclear is currently quite high in the
U.K., particularly around the sites where existing nuclear power
plants are located as many jobs depend on the facilities.
The U.K.'s 17 nuclear reactors currently generate around a fifth
of the country's electricity, but most of those power stations are
aging and are due to close over the next decade.
Plans by major European utilities to build 16 gigawatts of new
nuclear in the U.K. by 2050 would mostly only replace retired
capacity.
Around a quarter of the U.K.'s electricity generating capacity
is being shuttered over the next decade as aging nuclear plants are
closed and coal plants are retired due to European Union
environmental legislation.
Energy regulator Ofgem has estimated that around GBP200 billion
investment is required to 2020 in new power stations and upgrades
of grid and network infrastructure to keep the lights on while
meeting EU climate change targets.
The U.K. government has placed big bets on wind energy coming
from giant offshore installations far off the British coast, but
King said the costs of constructing and maintaining these wind
farms would be "massive." Wind farms also require investments in
gas-fired power stations as back up when the wind isn't
blowing.
"That increases the capacity costs of using the wind farm," he
said.
King dismissed the prospects of a European shale gas boom that
would bring down regional natural gas prices and avert the need for
gas imports for power generation, as has been the case in the U.S.,
saying it was unlikely due to environmental reasons in what is a
very densely populated region.
-By Selina Williams, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9262;
selina.williams@dowjones.com