The Reader: Nuclear power still has vital role despite Hitachi withdrawal

Hitachi’s announcement to withdraw investment from the nuclear plant in Anglesey will be considered a blow by many. But it also raises significant questions about the future of the UK’s energy policy. Recently suspended nuclear projects leave a 9.1-gigawatt deficit in the Government’s plans. This must be filled for energy bills to be affordable, carbon emissions to be reduced and the security of supply continued.

Does this latest withdrawal, the second major such announcement in six months, reflect a fading need for nuclear energy? Short-term, it’s unlikely as nuclear provides reliable, long-term baseload power.

While nuclear is still required as part of a diverse energy mix, there’s a growing role for renewables in an increasingly uncertain landscape — both to meet generation needs and provide clean power.

Ultimately, the balance of the UK’s energy mix is shifting and there’s an onus on the Government’s White Paper, which is due later this year, to recognise this. The Government must also be ambitious in backing emerging technologies such as energy storage, which help manage the intermittency of renewables — when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining.

In a recent report, we championed the need for a balanced approach to paying for the UK’s energy, recognising the role both the public and private sector play in delivering a more sustainable system.
Chris Richards
Institution of Civil Engineers

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Chris

The last time a government had a proper look at the future of our electricity generation was under the Coalition in 2013. That may not sound so long ago but the energy world has changed dramatically.

Technological advances have meant both the price of generating power through wind and sun has fallen dramatically, while our consumption of energy is falling. At the same time, gas — which looked set to rise in price forever — has become cheaper. So the conclusions reached in 2013, that the future was nuclear, no longer seem so obvious, particularly given how ruinously expensive it is.

The collapse of the projects by Hitachi in Anglesey and Toshiba in Moorside, plus all the wrangling over Hinkley Point in Somerset, were all essentially down to price. The worry is that this trio of fiascos will put other international companies off investing in the UK’s next generation of power plants. The Government must take the opportunity afforded by the nuclear debacles to come up with a new, more realistic policy, mixing renewables, gas and perhaps smaller, cheaper nuclear generators.

Jim Armitage, City Editor

Corn laws come back to haunt us

Tim Bale rightly praises Sir Robert Peel for his repeal of the corn laws in 1846 [“Theresa May asks her MPs to ‘think about history’. She should do so too”, January 18].

Sadly, the corn laws (protectionist food tariffs against the cheapest world producers) effectively had to be reintroduced a century and a quarter later when the UK joined Europe with its protectionist common agricultural policy.
Andy Thompson

Robert Peel stands tall in history. I suspect Theresa May will not, since she is likely to put party before country. In essence, there seems to have been no point to her over the past couple of years, sadly.
Giles Marshall

Theresa May has alienated most European leaders with her nationalistic language. Rather than building a consensus, she tacked hard Right. She has been holding an entire country to ransom.
Julie Patridge