UK energy – a disaster in the making?
Posted by michael on October 9, 2009
There is a potential disaster heading our way over the next 10 years.
There has been a lot of talk recently about an energy ‘gap’ around 2016. What that means to the ordinary person is that there will be shortages of electricity at peak periods.
Why? Because the investment is not in place for our increasing demand for electricity to be met.
A contract was very recently agreed for four new, latest generation nuclear power stations. All very good but at least three years too late! The first station is due to be operating in 2018. That is if everything goes well and the planning permissions don’t spend years in the courts being granted!
Another aggravating factor is that a number of UK coal and oil power stations are due to be decommissioned by the end of 2015.
New fossil fuel power stations (mostly coal) are needed but global warming and climate change concerns means that they should only be operating with carbon capture technology – which isn’t available yet!
Note that a number of fossil fuel power stations are needed by 2015 just to stand still, ie to replace old stations going out of service .
Renewable energy sources are promising. Wind farms are producing electricity now, and more are due to be built. But wind farms only operate when there is wind! The fossil fuel and nuclear stations can be turned down when energy from renewable sources is available, but the fossil fuel and nuclear stations will have to be able to meet the peak demand for electricity on their own!
Businesses and private homes can do a lot by using electricity efficiently and avoiding heat loss through insulation etc but the real problem is in generating electricity efficiently.
The government has the job to ensure that the lights do not go out. At this moment of time it would seem that they are failing in their responsibilities!
