Energy secretary Amber Rudd announced support for nuclear power in order to back up unreliable renewable sources and provide the UK with a steady supply of electricity.
She stated:
“The requirement for nuclear is absolute if we want to have renewables as part of the mix because, until we get storage right, renewables are unreliable. Storage is a fantastic opportunity in the future and a really exciting development, but it is not yet a really essential part of delivering electricity.”
She added:
“At the moment, we have to make sure that our renewable growth is accompanied by a secure baseload, so that we can have constant supply of electricity for consumers and for businesses while we’re growing renewables.”
This comes on the back off ending wind farm subsidies and showing favour towards fracking in recent months. Will this new support for nuclear push the environmentalists over the edge after growing concerns that the UK may not hit EU carbon reduction targets?
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) seem unperturbed and maintain they will still hit EU carbon regulations. Their focus will for now, remain on successful energy storage.
From our point of view, ensuring the UK has enough energy to see us through winter without blackouts is the prime aim.