Christopher Snowdon

The state of UK energy: Where do we go from here?

On the evening of Monday 3rd June, The Spectator gathered a group of experts together for a dinner to discuss the challenge of bringing the UK’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. The dinner was held the night before the Spectator Energy Summit, with both events being chaired by Andrew Neil. With the permission of the invited guests, what follows is a brief summary of the discussion.

David Wright (Director Electricity Transmission and Group Chief Engineer – Electricity, National Grid) began with the observation that they were meeting on the seventeenth consecutive day in which coal had played no part in the UK’s energy supply, a record in the modern era. As Andrew Neil pointed out, wind was currently providing 25 per cent of the country’s energy needs, but the biggest single component – 40 per cent – was gas. The problem with wind is that it is intermittent and requires a base level of backup power. For many years, this has come from nuclear energy, but a whole generation of nuclear power plants is in the process of being decommissioned and there are mixed views on whether there is a place for nuclear power in the future energy mix.

The controversy around the Hinkley Point project may scare politicians away from similar investments in the future. Phil Graham (Chief Executive, National Infrastructure Commission) said there was not a strong case for more than one new nuclear plant beyond Hinckley Point C to be built because the cost of renewables is low and getting lower.

Overall demand for electricity could rise from the current 90 gigawatts to 170 gigawatts or even 268 gigawatts if the UK succeeds in decarbonising transport and heating. With nuclear plants being gradually shut down, what will provide the base level? Charlie Ogilvie (Special Adviser to Claire Perry MP) argued that carbon capture and storage (CCS) could do the job.

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