I welcome proposals that will create more generating capacity in the United Kingdom. As the Minister knows, I am extremely worried that we are already typically 10% dependent on imported electricity and that the current plans envisage our becoming more import dependent, with the preferred route for electricity provision being the construction of more interconnectors. I am worried about this on security grounds, because we link ourselves at our peril into an energy-short system on the continent of Europe that is far too dependent on Mr Putin and Russian gas. I also worry about it because we are short of electricity and gas at the moment, and we see the price pressures that that creates. I think we should be doing more to expand the supply of both electricity and domestic gas.
I think the Scottish National party has made some important points, although it comes at nuclear power from a different perspective from that of the Government. While we could usefully enjoy more nuclear power, it is very important that those projects are timely and cost-controlled, with technologies that will deliver reliable power on a sustainable basis. Does the Minister agree that nothing in this legislation, and nothing that he can now do, can prevent the proportion of our electricity that is generated by nuclear from declining for the whole of this decade? As I understand it, these projects take a long time to get type approval and financing, and a long time in construction. As I also understand it, all but one of our current nuclear power stations is scheduled to close by 2030, and although one large new nuclear power station should come on stream during that period, it will not offset all the capacity that is taken out.
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So, it would be misleading to suggest that nuclear power can do anything to solve our problem this decade. I do not want to get in the way of it solving the problem for a following decade—we need to think ahead and these are very long-term projects—but the context of this debate is that we will be energy short for the next decade, and that even with the best intentions of this legislation and the possible schemes that would come under it, we are not going to do anything to contribute to resolving our energy shortage in the decade that we now face.
I would also like the Minister’s thoughts on the pace of the roll-out of nuclear power, if this Bill goes well and is passed with suitable amendment. What would he expect to see by way of incremental capacity for the following two decades after 2030, if all went well with
the ideas embedded in this legislation, given the state of the technology and the rather imperfect supply of capacity? Above all, does he have plans for smaller nuclear where it might be possible to approve a project more quickly and then scale it up and roll it out in more than a few locations?