Is United Kingdom going to run out of electriciy?
Sunday, June 15th, 2008Scary isn’t it.
Nick Louth reports from MSN Money It also brings home the importance of a looming gap in Britain’s ability to generate power. While electricity demand has grown 24% since 1990, the investment in building new power stations and modernising existing ones has failed to keep up.
Several large and dirty coal-fired power stations are due to close by 2015 to meet environmental rules, while many of Britain’s aged nuclear power stations are long overdue for closure too. The nuclear stations alone account for a fifth of the electricity we use.
By 2015 there could be a gap of 15% between the generation capacity available and expected demand. We have had decades to prepare for this. In 2000 the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution raised the issue, as did the 2006 Energy Review. However, the policy machine is really only just being turned into law.
