UK To Address Nuclear Gap with Renewables

Renewables organisations have advised the UK government to plug a 9GW hole in its low-carbon energy policy with “shovel-ready” wind and solar capacity following Hitachi suspended its nuclear development programme.

RenewableUK believed the UK perils “relying more heavily on polluting gas and coal” except it permitted mature renewables to participate in Contracts for Difference auctions subsequent the shelving of the 2.9GW Wylfa Newydd in Anglesey and 2.9GW Oldbury in Gloucestershire.

Hitachi’s UK subsidiary Horizon Nuclear Power alleged it had discarded the projects after failing to consent financing terms with the government, which was eager to take a one-third stake in Wylfa and offer a CfD of £75 per megawatt-hour.

The move comes just two months after another Japanese nuclear developer, Toshiba, pulled the plug on its 3.3GW Moorside plant in Cumbria.

The scrapping of 9.1GW of new nuclear equates to around 72 terrawatt-hours of low-carbon generation by 2030, according to analysts Carbon Brief.

“Today’s declaration risks blowing a hole in the government’s plans to convene our carbon targets,” said RUK deputy chief executive Emma Pinchbeck.

“We have a pipeline of shovel-ready onshore wind projects that can offer cheap power to consumers and help secure the gap on our carbon targets and it is time government allowed onshore wind competes on a level-playing field,” she added.