Britain has a problem, and it’s to do with electricity. Most of the nuclear power plants in the UK are being decommissioned because they are so old. This includes 17 nuclear sites, some of which date back to the 1940s.
Nuclear energy provides around 15% of the country’s electricity, but most existing nuclear power stations are scheduled to close by 2030. The only new sites that have been commissioned this side of the century are Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C. Hinkley is expected to come online in 2026 and provide around 7% of the UK’s electricity needs. Sizewell C is still going through the cumbersome process of obtaining planning permission. A simple glance at the maths shows that Britain will soon face an energy deficit if it doesn’t build more power plants – and quickly.
Energy needs in Britain are likely to continue to rise. Ironically, this is due to the aim to increase electrification to shift dependence away from fossil fuels, including transitioning to electric cars, low-carbon heating systems like heat pumps, and changing how heavy industry is powered. However, electrification is ultimately only as clean as the grid is, and the UK grid is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
In the US, there is now broad acknowledgement that energy needs are rising, and companies are finding ways to tackle the problem. This can be seen with Artificial Intelligence, where Microsoft has joined partners with industry to reopen Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to power its AI data centres. Development, progress and successful industry go hand in hand with electricity generation – a lesson that Germany is learning the hard way, as so many of its manufacturers are moving abroad to escape the country’s high energy prices.
Britain is lagging behind. Construction of the Hinkley and Sizewell plants has been repeatedly delayed by activists who use spurious arguments to prevent reactors being built and brought online. A complete overhaul of the planning process and regulation system is required to build clean energy efficiently at home. In other countries, especially across the Far East, new nuclear builds are built within reasonable timescales: in South Korea, Japan and China timings for new reactors are 3-4 years, while in Britain the initial stage of planning approval process alone takes a few years. Over the past decade, China has completed 37 nuclear reactors, reaching a total of 55, and the country has 22 more reactors under construction.
In the UK, the Government has lifted the ban on onshore wind and intends to build a lot more wind turbines and solar panels, but these will still require baseload generation to back them up when it hasn’t been windy or sunny for a while. Contrary to what many people assume, new wind turbines and solar panels also take several years to integrate into the grid. We need all the clean energy we can get, but without baseload power we will continue to import fossil fuels from overseas, as has happened in Germany. No large industrialised nation in the world has been able to decarbonise without baseload nuclear or hydropower to back up wind and solar generation, and that’s not for lack of trying.
Nuclear energy has the potential to kickstart Britain’s economy and lower our electricity bills. There is a direct correlation between how much nuclear energy is powering the grid and what the consumer pays for electricity. Also, power plants provide good jobs in regions that desperately need them. The closure of power plants in regions like Wylfa in Wales demonstrates how hard the local economy is hit when it loses its nuclear plant and how the residents suffer through losing jobs and opportunities. Former nuclear workers in these areas describe power plants as providing good jobs with opportunities to train, advance in the sector and develop valuable skill sets along the way. Welsh Parties are united in their support of building new nuclear plants and have, in recent years, urged the UK government to build new reactors at existing sites across Wales.
At present, the UK Government appears to be following in Germany’s footsteps of phasing out all baseload generation (coal and nuclear) and switching to only intermittent sources instead. Although we have not fallen so far as to actively shut down nuclear reactors for no good reason, and Ed Miliband has previously been bullish on nuclear, the new Labour Government has yet to announce any nuclear plants beyond Hinkley and Sizewell, or details on how to reform the planning process to enable sites to be developed more quickly. If Britain is serious about Net Zero, it needs to start building several more nuclear power plants. An effective energy policy is needed for energy security purposes, to meet climate targets and for ensuring progress over stagnation. We can’t start building soon enough.
Zion Lights is speaking at the Battle of Ideas Festival on Sunday 20 October. For tickets to the Festival, with a special 20% discount for CapX readers, use the code CAPX24 at checkout or visit this link to book.
Click here to subscribe to our daily briefing – the best pieces from CapX and across the web.
CapX depends on the generosity of its readers. If you value what we do, please consider making a donation.
