UK opposes a 2030 renewable energy target (Conservative push nuclear) [View all]

[kristopher]

UK opposes a 2030 renewable energy target
Fledgling green industries could be hit as document reveals move to put nuclear power on equal footing with renewable energy

Fiona Harvey and Juliette Jowit
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 11 March 2012 15.41 EDT

The UK government wants nuclear power to be given parity with renewables in Europe, in a move that would significantly boost atomic energy in Britain but downgrade investment in renewable generation, according to a leaked document seen by the Guardian.

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"The UK envisages multiple low-carbon technologies: renewables, nuclear and carbon capture and storage, all competing freely against each other in the years to come … For this reason, we cannot support a 2030 renewables target," it reads.

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The UK's renewable energy sector has already suffered a series of blows, with an anti-renewables backlash whipped up by right-leaning thinktanks and Tory MPs, more than 100 of whom sent a letter to the prime minister attacking renewables and calling on him to cut subsidies from onshore wind farms. Many wind turbine manufacturers have expressed concern over the effect of this on their prospective multibillion-pound investments in the UK.

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(Ruth) Davis (of Greenpeace) added that the moves to boost nuclear power would backfire, and be a gift to the gas industry. "Including carbon capture and storage and nuclear power in the target would enable the big six energy companies to retain their current stranglehold on our power sector, building whatever kind of power generation most suits their business models. It will lock in public subsidies to nuclear generation and make us more dependent on expensive imported gas."

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/11/uk-renewable-energy-target-nuclear-power