It’s not often that a British minister praises a country that isn’t called Great Britain. In Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit world, the United Kingdom has always come first, but since Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine, there has been a new role model in energy policy: France. The nuclear power plants there would have cost a fortune, said British Minister for Economic Affairs Kwasi Kwarteng telegraphbut they guaranteed the country a degree of independence for which it was envied.
Being self-sufficient is what matters now, also in Great Britain. The government wants to make the country as independent as possible from energy imports – especially from Russia. To achieve that, Johnson and Kwarteng laid one on Thursday “Energy Security Strategy” in front. The focus is on a massive expansion of nuclear energy and wind power. Both should help to make the country climate-neutral by 2050.
The renaissance of nuclear power is particularly noteworthy. While in Germany a possible lifetime extension of nuclear power plants is still being debated, the government in London has decided: Eight new nuclear reactors are to be approved by 2030. If all goes according to plan, by 2050 they should have a capacity of 24 gigawatts, covering a quarter of Britain’s electricity needs. Currently, the share of nuclear energy is 16 percent.
A project that has repeatedly been delayed in recent years shows how difficult it is to expand nuclear power: Hinkley Point C in Somerset, England, the first new nuclear power plant to be built on the island in two decades.
View of the Hinkley Point C construction site.
(Photo: Ben Birchall/picture alliance / empics)
The power plant was originally supposed to be ready in 2017, but nothing came of it. Now the two planned pressurized water reactors are scheduled to go into operation in 2026 and 2027. Whether this will succeed is an open question. Just last week, the French energy company responsible for the construction, EDF, warned that that the schedule is again in jeopardy. In addition, the cost estimate is now £23 billion – five billion higher than planned.
Johnson still wants to stick to it. The same applies to another EDF project on the English east coast, the Sizewell C nuclear power plant. A new nuclear power plant is also to be built on the Welsh island of Anglesey. However, there is a freeze on construction there after the Japanese company Hitachi withdrew. There are already interested parties from the USA who have submitted offers to take over the construction of the nuclear power plant, but the government is apparently at odds. While the Economics Ministry considers the new nuclear power offensive to be indispensable for achieving the climate goals, the Finance Ministry is concerned that the construction of new nuclear power plants could ultimately become too expensive.
Johnson, however, does not want to know anything about it. He is fully committed to nuclear energy. The prime minister has high hopes for so-called mini-kilns. The small power plants are currently being developed under the leadership of Rolls-Royce and are expected to be much more economical compared to the construction costs of Hinkley Point C.
Johnson wants to make his country a “Saudi Arabia of wind power”.
Johnson is unlikely to face any major opposition to any of his nuclear plans. Compared to Germany, there are few opponents of nuclear power in Great Britain. A large public debate about the pros and cons of nuclear energy is not to be expected. And so there is not a word in the government’s strategy paper on the final disposal of nuclear waste. In Great Britain, as in France, the construction of a nuclear power plant is more of a climate-friendly project.
In order to become even greener in this sense, the government also wants to promote the expansion of renewable energies. If Johnson has his way, Great Britain should become a “Saudi Arabia of wind power”. By 2030, up to 50 gigawatts should come from offshore systems – the current share is almost ten gigawatts. However, because wind is not enough to break away from energy supplies from authoritarian states in the short term, new oil and gas production projects are planned in the North Sea.
The pressure on the government to act as quickly as possible is increasing. As in other European countries, energy prices have risen sharply in Great Britain. from one cost of living crisis is the speech, the inflation rate is now at 5.5 percent, tendency: increasing. Unlike the European Central Bank, however, the Bank of England has already taken countermeasures and raised the key interest rate, most recently to 0.75 percent.
Britain is far less dependent on Russian energy than Germany
One thing is certain: the cost of living will rise. It’s not just electricity and gas bills, which, according to regulator Ofgem, are increasing by an average of £700 a year for a household. There is also VAT for hotel accommodation and concert tickets, which was reduced due to the corona pandemic but is now back at 20 percent.
Social security contributions have also increased since this week. The proceeds are to benefit the chronically underfunded National Health Service (NHS), which is responsible for health care in the country. While the Treasury Department has unveiled a relief package that includes gas price cuts and relief for low-income earners, even Johnson has recognized that this will not be enough to alleviate the plight of the country’s poorer people.
At least Johnson can claim a plus point in the Europe-wide debate about an import ban for Russian energy supplies. Compared to many other European countries, Britain is far less dependent on Putin. Only four percent of the British gas requirement comes from Russia, for oil it is eight percent. And so the government decided a month ago to stop oil imports from Russia until the end of this year. Imports of gas are to be phased out as soon as possible. There is no exact date – unlike the nuclear power plant plans – not yet.