SSE plugs nuclear alternatives

The UK does not need to worry about uncertainty over the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, because there are credible alternatives, such as offshore wind, that could meet the country’s energy needs, according to SSE’s chief executive.

Alistair Phillips-Davies said today in Politics Home that the significance of the nuclear plant to the UK’s energy needs had been “repeatedly overplayed”. 

He said: “Whilst it is undoubtedly true that we need new, cleaner technology to replace the older power stations coming off the system, there are enough credible alternatives out there which can be built in time to deliver the balanced energy mix we need, and a policy framework which can deliver the necessary investment.”

The 3.2GW Hinkley plant in Somerset was first slated to be online in 2017, but, despite developers EDF having approved funding for the project, the UK government has postponed a decision on the nuclear facility until the autumn.

Phillips-Davies said that the alternatives to Hinkley are not necessarily more expensive. For example, he said the 7MW turbine blades that will be used on SSE’s 588MW Beatrice wind farm in the Moray Firth will be manufactured at Siemens new manufacturing plant in Hull, “helping to develop a UK supply chain to allow this technology to go toe-to-toe with nuclear on cost by 2025”.

The UK government has also put three vital policies in place to help achieve a balanced energy mix, he said. They are a price for carbon, specific low-carbon contracts and an annual generation capacity auction.

Phillips-Davies said that there is now nearly twice as much generating capacity from new gas-fired power stations and offshore wind potentially waiting to come on to the country’s electricity system by 2025 as there is old coal and nuclear coming off.

There are also other options, such as “wind power in the remote Scottish islands and perhaps even some repowering of old wind farms without subsidy, as well as emerging technologies like small modular reactors or demand-side-response and storage”.

He said the focus should be on maintaining confidence in the three main policies outlined above to ensure alternatives, such as offshore wind, can fill the gap if Hinkley doesn’t progress.

Image: SSE