Labour's ambitious target for offshore wind could be quietly shelved to make way for the giant funding commitment to pay for Sizewell C nuclear power plant
Im quite happy with wind but it has to be backed up by enough dispatchable generation (ie CCGTs) to deal with low production periods. That arrangement is going to cost more there is no getting away with it and green community should be honest about the price for keeping the planet going for future generations.
The big issue with Sizewell costs are they are guaranteed to be higher than Hinkley (despite what EDF say) as the site is smaller, more complicated and far less accessible than Hinkley. In addition there are multiple energy projects planned in same area at the same time. Even more traffic on the country lanes and no accommodation for all the works. This is going to cause them big problems as time goes on, EDF are being coy about the expected costs and sticking to their original £20bn figure but they’re not fooling me! Unfortunately I think they ARE fooling the government.
They ought to be learning lessons from Hinkley C to give them confidence if its a replicate but no doubt our regulators will want it to be different despite its already a far safer design than the AGRs
Im quite happy with wind but it has to be backed up by enough dispatchable generation (ie CCGTs) to deal with low production periods. That arrangement is going to cost more there is no getting away with it and green community should be honest about the price for keeping the planet going for future generations.
I was involved in commissioning a report about relative costs of nuclear/CCS and 100%renewable energy pathways. See https://100percentrenewableuk.org/
The big issue with Sizewell costs are they are guaranteed to be higher than Hinkley (despite what EDF say) as the site is smaller, more complicated and far less accessible than Hinkley. In addition there are multiple energy projects planned in same area at the same time. Even more traffic on the country lanes and no accommodation for all the works. This is going to cause them big problems as time goes on, EDF are being coy about the expected costs and sticking to their original £20bn figure but they’re not fooling me! Unfortunately I think they ARE fooling the government.
They ought to be learning lessons from Hinkley C to give them confidence if its a replicate but no doubt our regulators will want it to be different despite its already a far safer design than the AGRs