THERE is a need for clean energy and a new generation of nuclear plants was to be built to supply future energy requirements. Now we learn that Hitachi may pull the plug on a new nuclear plant in Wales, just months after Toshiba pulled out of a similar plant in Cumbria. The rising cost of construction, inability to compete with renewable energy and the viability of new nuclear combine to put off investors.
The initial push for renewables was energy security, yet the UK imports 35 per cent of its gas from Russia and we require foreign expertise to build any future new nuclear plant, if viable; hardly the basis for energy security.
We in Scotland could probably supply all of our needs with renewables (tidal, solar, wind, hydro), a system of storage and a couple of combined-cycle power plants but we exist in an increasingly interconnected European market for electricity and major city regions have huge energy needs. Interconnectors between the continent and south-east of England run at full capacity much of the time, mostly in one direction.
The Department of Energy Plan A was for a new generation of nuclear generators to keep the lights on after 2025 or so. Is there a Plan B?
GR Weir,
17 Mill Street, Ochiltree.
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