The energy regulator, Ofgem, has predicted that the UK risks running out of energy generating capacity in the winter of 2015-16. The National Policy Statement for Nuclear Power Generation, published in July 2011, identified eight sites as potentially suitable for new nuclear power stations and noted that there was an urgent need for these to be developed before the end of 2025. At the time of writing only one of the sites, Hinkley Point, is being progressed.
The power company EDF has been granted a nuclear site licence for the site, which is the first major step towards a new build but there is still a long way to go. Interest in building new plants at Wylfa on Anglesey and Oldbury in Gloucestershire stalled when E.On and RWE pulled out of Horizon, the consortium bidding for the sites because the change in nuclear policy in Germany, where these companies are based.
The power company EDF has been granted a nuclear site licence for the site, which is the first major step towards a new build but there is still a long way to go. Interest in building new plants at Wylfa on Anglesey and Oldbury in Gloucestershire stalled when E.On and RWE pulled out of Horizon, the consortium bidding for the sites because the change in nuclear policy in Germany, where these companies are based. Germany’s decision to pull out of nuclear was made in response to the impact of the tsunami on the Fukushima power station in Japan. It is somewhat ironic, therefore, that Horizon has been bought by Hitachi, the company responsible for building the Fukushima plant. The good news, for those looking to nuclear power as a major contributor to low carbon energy generation in the UK, is that the new build programme at these two sites is now back on the agenda.