Up to eight more nuclear reactors could be approved for construction as part of a new UK energy strategy that Boris Johnson has said will tackle the “mistakes of the past”.
Launching the plan at Hinkley Point C, a nuclear power station being built in Somerset, the prime minister said his “bold plans” will put nuclear energy at the heart of the UK’s energy supply and will stop the country being “subject to blackmail” by Vladimir Putin.
The strategy is intended to “boost UK energy independence and tackle rising prices”, the BBC reported. But experts have responded by calling for “a bigger focus on energy efficiency and improving home insulation”.
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What is in the plan?
As well as paving the way for more nuclear power plants, Johnson’s plan “also aims to increase wind, hydrogen and solar production”, the BBC said.
The key measures include:
- Plans to build up to eight new nuclear reactors, including two in Suffolk.
- Reform of planning laws to speed up approval of offshore wind farms, as well as offering cheaper energy bills in return for areas hosting onshore turbines.
- Doubling targets for hydrogen production to help provide cleaner energy.
- Easing rules for installing solar panels on homes and commercial buildings to help increase capacity by up to five times by 2035.
- A new licensing round for North Sea oil and gas projects to be launched this summer.
- Support for heat pump production in an effort to reduce demand for gas.
‘A missed opportunity’
Expectations around the government’s new energy strategy have been heightened by the cost of living crisis and soaring energy bills as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But environmentalists and some experts reacted with “disbelief and anger” at some of the measures, said BBC environmental analyst Roger Harrabin.
Critics “cannot believe the government has offered no new policies on saving energy by insulating buildings”, he added, arguing that “energy efficiency would immediately lower bills and emissions, and is the cheapest way to improve energy security”.
A Downing Street source told Harrabin the announcement had morphed into an “energy supply strategy” in light of Putin’s threat to cut off Russian gas deliveries.
Damian Carrington, The Guardian’s environment editor, said that by “betting big on nuclear, hydrogen, oil and gas while passing over energy saving measures”, Johnson’s plan for the future is a “huge missed opportunity”.
Paul Waugh, chief political commentator at the i news site, tweeted that the prime minister had “bottled it” by dropping earlier plans to drastically increase both onshore wind and solar energy.
But Tom Greatrex, boss of the Nuclear Industry Association, welcomed the plans as a “vital step forward” for the UK to meet its climate goals, adding that the strategy could create thousands of jobs.
The Confederation of British Industry also said the strategy “sets an ambitious bar for a more resilient, low carbon energy system for the future”, while cautioning that businesses need help paying their energy bills now, Sky News reported.
