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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is all set to roll out a new energy security strategy to expand Britain’s nuclear and offshore wind power. The new strategy is expected to come out at the end of the month as gas and oil prices are at record highs after Russia declared war against Ukraine.
“Britain’s new energy security strategy will look to expand domestic nuclear and offshore wind capacity to bolster the country’s energy independence and bring down the cost of living in the future,” he said.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has been an eye-opener for many western countries, especially Europe, and has prompted them to speed up their expansion strategy in the renewable energy sector as Russia and other areas’ cost of energy supplies is getting unrealistic day by day.
Understanding and planning nuclear power needs long-term thinking and perspectives. Unfortunately, it took a battle to alter a few minds towards this industry.
Boris said on LBC radio, “We can make sure that by investing in energy production, domestic energy production, independent energy production, we can have sustainable long-term suppliers that will bring down the costs for consumers over the long term.”
It is believed that nuclear energy is accountable for the UK’s 16% of energy demands. With Scotland and Germany refusing installation of any nuclear plant on their land, UK’s trouble seems to be deepening. The retirement of several older facilities has only complicated the problem.
As per reports, PM David Cameron introduced a new regulation in 2015 that enabled wind energy farms to be built only if they were part of local planning. Residents’ approval was a must for the same. Now, Johnson seeks relaxation for developers of onshore wind farms to get bigger renewable capacity in the UK.
After the 2015 reforms, the installation drive of onshore wind turbines took a backseat. As per the University of West England, applications came for only 23 turbines commission for only 14 sites in the last five years in comparison to the proposals for 1500 wind turbines to develop 333 sites in 2014 only.
