Climate advisory panel says UK should rely more on nuclear reactors, less on wind farms

The UK should construct more nuclear reactors and substantially reduce its investments in offshore wind power to meet targets for carbon emissions and renewable power, says the government's climate advisory panel. Specifically, two more nuclear reactors, capable of pumping out a total of 3.2 gigawatts of energy, will be needed by 2030, according to the UK's Committee on Climate Change.

The Committee noted that the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may put a damper on nuclear developments across the globe, but says that nuclear is the only practical way for the UK to meet its "aggressive" goals of deriving 15 percent of its energy for power, heat and transport (i.e. plug-in vehicles) from renewables by 2020. David Kennedy, chief executive of the Committee, says that:

Nuclear, for the foreseeable future, looks like it will be the lowest cost low-carbon technology. It's only as you get to the end of the 2020s and the beginning of the 2030s that the cost of renewables starts to converge.

If the UK decides to go the nuclear route, then plans for massive offshore wind farms will either, most likely, be delayed or canceled.

[Source: Bloomberg | Image: mikebaird – C.C. License 2.0]