Britain could face energy crisis by 2020
A new report by the Institution of Civil Engineers has warned that Britain could face long power cuts by 2020 as the country imports the bulk of its energy needs.
By that time 80% of the gas to fuel Britain’s power stations will be piped from ‘politically unstable countries thousands of miles away’ leaving supplies vulnerable to mechanical failure, sabotage and terrorist attack which could lead to power cuts within days, says the society.
Emission constraints mean that the UK’s coal-powered generating plants will close shortly after 2016 and only one nuclear power station will remain operational beyond 2020. At present, renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and wave can only provide a fraction of the total requirement.
The Institution of Civil Engineers, which was established in 1818, says that by 2020 Britain will rely on a pipeline that passes through many other countries that will also depend on imported gas.
‘It does not need much imagination to realise how vulnerable we will be. Even if there is merely a shortage rather than an interruption in the supply we will be the first to suffer,’ David Anderson, chairman of ICE’s energy board and author of the report said.
Until now Britain has been largely self-sufficient in electricity generation. The ICE is urging the government to ‘develop a sustainable solution that incorporates a mix of all types of generation, including renewable sources like wind and wave power, nuclear and cleaner coal and gas-fired power stations’.
Energy Minister Stephen Timms said that he did not accept the “bleak picture” painted by the report.
“The report is right, that we are going to become a net gas importer over the next few years and that is a contrast with our experience in the UK over the past 100 years, but I think actually we are going to achieve the diversity”.
“Certainly we are looking at a variety of sources for gas supplies in the UK; we are looking to renewables to provide a growing proportion of our energy and we haven’t ruled out the possibility of new nuclear either”, the minister said in a BBC interview this morning.
Neither did Mr Timms accept that Britain would be forced to rely heavily on supplies from “unstable” countries, such as Iran.
“Of course we are going to continue to get oil and gas from the North Sea for some time, although it will account for a dwindling proportion of the total. Norway is going to supply and I don’t think Norway is an unstable country,” he said.
“Russia is interesting because Vladimir Putin was here in the UK last week to mark a closer partnership between Russia and Britain on gas”
“And Russia has been a very stable supplier of gas to Europe for 20 years or more and there are very major new investments by Shell, BP, UK companies in Russian energy and I think Russia is going to be an important and a stable supplier.”
The report comes four months after the Government’s energy white paper insisted that future gas supplies were not a problem.
