Seems like we’ll get a new government energy policy this week, though it’s been promised for a couple of weeks now - held up in wrangling between factions…..
And looks like it won’t really be new - just a new focus on old stuff - chief among them more nuclear…….the perfect answer to an energy crisis - something that will start generating 20 years from now and add massive cost to our energy bills…….
I wrote an opinion piece for the Express last night ahead of what’s expected…..
Directors cut is here -
The ‘Nuclear Option’ is famously the last resort - in which nobody wins. And so it is with Boris Johnson’s proposal to build seven new nuclear power stations in Britain. Where to start……
Three facts - Nuclear is the most expensive way to make energy that we have ever devised. It’s the most polluting by far - producing deadly waste that remains deadly for thousands of years. And for good measure nuclear is the slowest way we know to make energy - taking typically ten years to plan, ten more years to build and another ten to break even in terms of carbon. Nuclear projects always come in late and above budget - Hinkley is a decade late now and billions over budget. Most expensive, most polluting and by far the slowest - that’s nuclear.
In stark contrast - new wind and sun energy projects can be built very fast - one year to plan, one to build and one more to break even carbon wise. They are by far the cheapest way we have to make energy - half the price of nuclear and still getting cheaper. And of course there’s no toxic waste to deal with.
The fastest, cheapest, cleanest and safest way to beat this energy crisis, to nail down energy bills forever - and beat the climate crisis for good measure - is to invest now in more wind and sun energy. Not nuclear.
With the budget for just one big nuclear power station we could be at 100% green on the grid, powered by our own wind and sun - ten years from now, just as the first diggers might be turning up to start work on the first of these foolish new nuclear projects.
