The UK wants to build up to eight new nuclear reactors by 2030. With this, the country wants to become more independent from foreign countries for its energy supply. In addition, the British government wants to grant new permits for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea and more space for wind turbines. That’s in a new plan for the country’s energy supply.
By 2030, the UK wants to generate 50 gigawatts of electricity with wind turbines, which should be enough to supply all households in the country with electricity. Twenty years later, nuclear power must generate at least 25 percent of all the electricity that Britons need. In addition, the country wants to start awarding new projects to drill for oil and gas in the British part of the North Sea this autumn.
The government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes that the British energy bill will be lower due to the plans, because the new policy will make prices less dependent on international markets.
The government points to the current energy crisis, with high gas and electricity prices. In the second half of last year, many British energy companies already went bankrupt due to rising gas prices due to scarcity. The war between Ukraine and Russia led to new record highs in the price of gas.
There has also been criticism of the new energy strategy. For example, there would be far too little attention to better insulation of homes and other energy-saving measures, which are also financially advantageous for the British. According to the British director of Energy Group E. ON, “that forces thousands of customers to live in cold and drafty homes, while wasting energy and paying more than is necessary for their heating”.
Due to the war in Ukraine, many countries are rethinking the import of energy from countries that they do not support politically. For example, the call for a boycott of Russian gas is getting louder, but the European Union does not want to do that yet because many countries extract most of the gas from Russia.
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