New gas and nuclear plants to see off coal

The GMB union’s national secretary for energy Brian Strutton welcomed Ms Rudd’s statement but added: “Government needs to get on with addressing the urgent need for nuclear power stations and gas-fired stations to supply reliable power”.

A new report, The Great Green Hangover, published today by the Centre for Policy Studies, argues that decades of energy policy mismanagement will leave the country with 52,360MW of “dispatchable capacity”, from coal, gas and nuclear, while winter demand is forecast to be 54,200MW.

“Launching a new dash for gas and new nuclear is not the solution as it will only lock in more dirty power than we actually need for a low-carbon transition”, she said.

“The United Kingdom closing coal quickly sends a major signal to the rest of the world in advance of the Paris climate change negotiations”, he said. “The government is right to have made this a key plank of a new conservative energy policy”.

It calls for the abandonment of carbon taxes, which the report says are three times higher in the United Kingdom than the rest of Europe, in order to prevent the closure of more power plants.

“I am determined to ensure that the United Kingdom has secure, affordable and clean energy supplies that hardworking families and businesses can rely on now and in the future”. In total, over 16 GW of coal-fired power will have closed in the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2016 with little built by way of replacement.

Writing on Twitter, Craig Jones, a director a General Electric, commented: “Coal phase out by 2025? More prediction than intervention #coal #energy”.

There are also concerns about whether the government has control over the situation.

Green groups are fearful that subsidising a new wave of gas projects will put pressure on the UK’s emission reduction targets for the 2020s and 2030s and could prompt the government to try and dilute its carbon budgets. “But if coal is simply replaced by gas the United Kingdom will continue its addiction to fossil fuels and is in danger of being left behind in the global clean tech race”.

Burning gas emits around half as much carbon as coal and is considered by a few to be a “bridging” fuel, as countries work towards a zero-carbon future.

On nuclear, she will say that the Government is dealing with a legacy of under-investment, which is now changing with plans for a new plant at Hinkley Point, Somerset, set to start generating in the mid 2020s and a new fleet of reactors planned.