Britain Unveils a 50-Year Energy Plan

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-eur/2006/jul/11/071103932.html

Britain unveiled its energy plan for the next 50 years Tuesday, saying nuclear power could make a "significant contribution" to the country's needs as it seeks to reduce dependence on imported fuel and cut the pollutants blamed for global warming.

Trade Secretary Alistair Darling said increasing energy efficiency and boosting the use of renewable power sources would be central, and nuclear energy could also make a "significant contribution."

"A mix of energy supply remains essential and we should not be over-dependent on one source if we're going to maintain security of supply in the future," he told Parliament.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, who once opposed nuclear power, said Tuesday that "what's changed my thinking is not just climate change, but the fact that we're going to move from being self-sufficient in basic energy to a big importer."

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[bananas]

1. The report is on the BBC website

pdf's for the report and executive summary
they have a video report and other interesting links in the sidebars
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5166426.stm

[tjwmason]

2. I'm very disappointed - but not surprised in that.

The real choice to be made in Britain (I suspect elsewhere too, but don't know local situations well enough) is not between gas, coal, nuclear, renewable - but rather between macro- and micro-scale. This debate is entirely ignored, so we are being pushed to waste a vast proportion of our electricity on simply carrying it around the country.

There is nothing about local micro-generation, just more about vast schemes to feed the wasteful national grid.

[dcfirefighter]

3. Macrogeneration is fine for the relatively dense UK.

While there are certainly transmission losses in grid powered macro generation, they are smaller in dense countries like the UK. Furthermore, the environmental costs are less than that caused by 1) the inherent necessity for overcapacity when using microgeneration 2) the inherent decrease in efficiency due to microgeneration and 3) the difficulties in regulating microgeneration, especially when tied to the grid.