The British Government has announced it plans to close all coal-fired power stations by 2025 and restrict their use by 2023.
In a speech to the UK Institution of Civil Engineers, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd said, “Many decades of engineering brilliance and hard, often dangerous work has produced a system which takes the natural raw material of coal and gas and oil (and now the wind and sun) and moulds them into something that powers our lives.”
However, she said, it cannot be satisfactory for an advanced economy to be relying on polluting, carbon intensive 50-year-old coal-fired power stations and the country’s energy needs could be sustained with gas, nuclear and, if the cost comes down, offshore wind.
“Our North Sea history means the UK is a home to world class oil and gas expertise, in Aberdeen and around the UK – we should build on that base so that our shale potential can be exploited safely,” Rudd said.
“We currently import around half of our gas needs, but by 2030 that could be as high as 75%. That’s why we’re encouraging investment in our shale gas exploration so we can add new sources of home-grown supply to our real diversity of imports.”
On nuclear, she said its opponents misread the science and it is safe and reliable.
“Climate change is a big problem, it needs big technologies,” she said.
“The challenge, as with other low carbon technologies, is to deliver nuclear power which is low cost as well. Green energy must be cheap energy.”
She said plans for a new fleet of nuclear power stations could provide up to 30% of the low carbon electricity the country will need through the 2030s and create 30,000 new jobs.
However, Rudd was more cautious regarding offshore wind power, saying, while current plans will see 10GW of offshore wind installed by 2020, it is still too expensive.
“So our approach will be different - we will not support offshore wind at any cost,” she said.
“The technology needs to move quickly to cost-competitiveness. The industry tells us they can meet that challenge, and we will hold them to it. If they don’t there will be no subsidy. No more blank cheques.”
Photo: FreeImages.com/Keith Syvinski