News wire — Britain has set out plans to expand nuclear and offshore wind power to bolster its energy independence, but a failure to target improved energy efficiency even as heating costs surge was attacked for lacking ambition.
Reuters reports that with energy prices hitting record highs this year, driven in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Britain set targets to increase wind, nuclear and solar generation, while supporting domestic production of oil and gas.
But options that could have delivered a more immediate impact, such as targets to expand onshore wind and improve home insulation, were lacking.
E.ON chief Michael Lewis said a failure to include measures to help people reduce energy use and insulate homes “condemns thousands more customers to living in cold and draughty homes, wasting energy and paying more than they need to for their heating.”
There was also little detail on how the new projects would be funded, but last year Britain pledged up to 1.7 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) towards a new large-scale nuclear project and earlier this year said it would hold auctions for renewable project support every year. read more
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the plan would scale up domestic sources of affordable, clean and secure energy.
“This will reduce our dependence on power sources exposed to volatile international prices we cannot control, so we can enjoy greater energy self-sufficiency with cheaper bills,” Johnson said in a statement.
As Britain removes the low levels of oil and gas it gets from Russia, it will expand further into nuclear, with an ambition to increase capacity to 24 gigawatts, GW, by 2050. That would meet around a quarter of projected electricity demand, up sharply from about 14% today.
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