The UK Secretary of State for Energy Chris Huhne has said that a surge of investment in new energy sources will be needed to ensure the country’s energy security and reduce reliance on fossil fuels in the decades ahead.
The UK government has launched the consultation on the coalition’s revised draft national policy statements on energy.
They show that it is expected that over half the new energy generating capacity built in the UK by 2025 will come from renewable sources. A significant proportion of the remainder will come from low carbon sources such as nuclear and fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage.
The statements confirmed eight sites as potentially suitable for new nuclear power stations and ruled out three sites for the development of new nuclear power by 2025.
This came alongside the publication of the feasibility study into a tidal energy project in the Severn estuary which found that there was no strategic case for major public sector investment in a large-scale energy project in the Severn estuary at this time.
As part of a package of announcements to provide certainty across the nuclear industry, the Secretary of State also set out more detail on what will be required from new nuclear developers in terms of clean-up and provided further detail on the government's policy of no subsidy for new nuclear power.
