Nuclear Power Bid Declared unlawful
Anne Grange | 20.02.2007 23:12 | Climate Chaos
The government's plans for nuclear powerstations have been declared to be unlawful by High Court ruling. Nuclear power would be unsustainable and inneffective as a solution to climate change. The real solution is Decentralised Engergy - generating heat and power from sustainable resources near the point of use.
Nuclear Power Bid Declared Unlawful
Greenpeace has been in court challenging the Government’s decision to build a new generation of nuclear power stations. The High Court verdict last week declared that the government’s plans for a new fleet of nuclear power stations were unlawful.
The Government will now have to conduct a more comprehensive review if they want to justify the future of nuclear power in the UK.
In the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Mr Justice Sullivan agreed with Greenpeace that the energy review was not the ‘fullest public consultation’ that the Government had committed itself to before making a decision to back new nuclear power stations. This commitment had been made in the earlier energy white paper in 2003.
Mr Justice Sullivan said that the consultation exercise was ”seriously flawed and that the process was manifestly inadequate and unfair” because insufficient information had been made available by the Government for consultees to make an “intelligent response”.
Nuclear Power – a flawed vision
The government is pushing nuclear power stations as the solution to climate change and energy security. However, it is a simple case of too little, too late. The government admits that the first new nuclear power station would take at least a decade to build and a full replacement programme of 10 nuclear power stations is several decades away.
Nuclear power stations are only used to generate electricity and don’t contribute to our heating or transport needs. So while they might provide around 20% of our electricity supply, according to the government even ten new nuclear power stations will only meet about 3.6% of our total energy use and only cut UK emissions by around 4%.
To play our part in stopping climate change the UK needs to cut emissions by at least 80% by 2050 and be well on the way in the next decade – so the 4% cut in twenty years time offered by nuclear is way too little, too late.
Nuclear power will leave us more dependent on gas, not less - because it ties Britain to an inefficient centralised energy system in which our electricity is generated in huge power stations far from the point of use and two thirds of the energy generated is wasted – as heat lost in cooling water or in the case of dinosaur centralised coal or gas power plants - up cooling towers. That’s why, according to government figures, nuclear only supplied around 3.6% of the total energy we use today.
Most of the gas consumed in the UK (around 70%) is used for heat – in our homes or in industry. So if the government’s nuclear plans - in several decades time - could produce about 20% of our electricity as it does now. Then the other 80% of our electricity will come from a mixture of other sources including gas and nearly all our heat will also still come from gas. So these nuclear plans will make almost no difference on ‘energy security’ according to the government’s definition.
Government Climate Failure
If the government was really concerned about climate change and energy security they would ban energy guzzling products such as old fashioned inefficient light bulbs. According to Philips, the light bulb manufacturer, if everyone in Europe used energy efficient lighting we could close down 25 medium sized power stations.
This government can’t do joined up thinking. For example their push to expand airports like Heathrow will increase emissions so much that it will more than wipe out any savings their new nuclear power stations could hope to deliver.
The REAL solution – Decentralised Energy
What would give us genuine energy security and a real solution to climate change is a smarter, modern approach to the whole energy question, not just one part of it – and that means a decentralised energy approach, built on combined heat and power stations using the cleanest fuels. This approach gives you massive energy efficiency.
By building smaller, super-efficient power stations nearer to where our energy is used – so-called decentralised energy, already being rolled out across Scandinavia – we can more than double the amount of power we get out of the fuel we use. By building more efficient appliances and constructing better buildings we can make further savings. And by harnessing clean, renewable energy on a massive scale as fast as possible we can slash our emissions and our fuel dependence at a stroke.
In an era of dwindling fossil fuel supplies, the first logical step would be to make the most efficient use possible of the fossil fuels we have left, and that means building super-efficient Combined Heat and Power plants (CHP) as part of a decentralised energy system. Nuclear power only provides electricity and it locks us into a centralised system that wastes two thirds of the energy generated before we even get to use it in our homes or businesses.
Greenpeace has been in court challenging the Government’s decision to build a new generation of nuclear power stations. The High Court verdict last week declared that the government’s plans for a new fleet of nuclear power stations were unlawful.
The Government will now have to conduct a more comprehensive review if they want to justify the future of nuclear power in the UK.
In the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Mr Justice Sullivan agreed with Greenpeace that the energy review was not the ‘fullest public consultation’ that the Government had committed itself to before making a decision to back new nuclear power stations. This commitment had been made in the earlier energy white paper in 2003.
Mr Justice Sullivan said that the consultation exercise was ”seriously flawed and that the process was manifestly inadequate and unfair” because insufficient information had been made available by the Government for consultees to make an “intelligent response”.
Nuclear Power – a flawed vision
The government is pushing nuclear power stations as the solution to climate change and energy security. However, it is a simple case of too little, too late. The government admits that the first new nuclear power station would take at least a decade to build and a full replacement programme of 10 nuclear power stations is several decades away.
Nuclear power stations are only used to generate electricity and don’t contribute to our heating or transport needs. So while they might provide around 20% of our electricity supply, according to the government even ten new nuclear power stations will only meet about 3.6% of our total energy use and only cut UK emissions by around 4%.
To play our part in stopping climate change the UK needs to cut emissions by at least 80% by 2050 and be well on the way in the next decade – so the 4% cut in twenty years time offered by nuclear is way too little, too late.
Nuclear power will leave us more dependent on gas, not less - because it ties Britain to an inefficient centralised energy system in which our electricity is generated in huge power stations far from the point of use and two thirds of the energy generated is wasted – as heat lost in cooling water or in the case of dinosaur centralised coal or gas power plants - up cooling towers. That’s why, according to government figures, nuclear only supplied around 3.6% of the total energy we use today.
Most of the gas consumed in the UK (around 70%) is used for heat – in our homes or in industry. So if the government’s nuclear plans - in several decades time - could produce about 20% of our electricity as it does now. Then the other 80% of our electricity will come from a mixture of other sources including gas and nearly all our heat will also still come from gas. So these nuclear plans will make almost no difference on ‘energy security’ according to the government’s definition.
Government Climate Failure
If the government was really concerned about climate change and energy security they would ban energy guzzling products such as old fashioned inefficient light bulbs. According to Philips, the light bulb manufacturer, if everyone in Europe used energy efficient lighting we could close down 25 medium sized power stations.
This government can’t do joined up thinking. For example their push to expand airports like Heathrow will increase emissions so much that it will more than wipe out any savings their new nuclear power stations could hope to deliver.
The REAL solution – Decentralised Energy
What would give us genuine energy security and a real solution to climate change is a smarter, modern approach to the whole energy question, not just one part of it – and that means a decentralised energy approach, built on combined heat and power stations using the cleanest fuels. This approach gives you massive energy efficiency.
By building smaller, super-efficient power stations nearer to where our energy is used – so-called decentralised energy, already being rolled out across Scandinavia – we can more than double the amount of power we get out of the fuel we use. By building more efficient appliances and constructing better buildings we can make further savings. And by harnessing clean, renewable energy on a massive scale as fast as possible we can slash our emissions and our fuel dependence at a stroke.
In an era of dwindling fossil fuel supplies, the first logical step would be to make the most efficient use possible of the fossil fuels we have left, and that means building super-efficient Combined Heat and Power plants (CHP) as part of a decentralised energy system. Nuclear power only provides electricity and it locks us into a centralised system that wastes two thirds of the energy generated before we even get to use it in our homes or businesses.
Anne Grange
e-mail:
anne@grange77.fsbusiness.co.uk