Energy supply
A reliable supply of energy is essential to any modern economy - without it, our homes, businesses, hospitals and schools simply cannot function. Yet the way in which the UK currently manages and secures its energy supply presents significant challenges.
The UK energy sector requires major sustained investment over the coming decades to maintain secure energy supplies. Furthermore, ageing power stations will need to be replaced by lower carbon plant if we are to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and meet the Government's objectives on climate change. These twin goals must be achieved through the development of new technologies, investment in infrastructure and implementing energy efficiency measures.
We believe ageing power stations should be replaced in the first instance by modern gas-fired plants. These are quicker, cheaper and have lower emissions than coal-fired power stations and will go a long way to meeting the UK's demand for power for some time to come.
It would, however, be wrong to become over-reliant on plentiful and affordable supplies of gas in the long term, so we are also planning to build the UK's first supercritical coal-fired generating units - supercritical temperatures mean that these new units are more efficient and cleaner than existing ones. These will be the first new coal station units built in the UK in over 30 years and represent a significant challenge.
However, building new stations will not be enough to meet the emissions reductions targets. That's why we will be making our new coal-fired plant 'carbon capture ready' so that when the technology to extract CO2 emissions is ready we can use it, making this plant one of the cleanest and most efficient in the world.
In the next three years, we plan to invest over £3 billion in renewable and cleaner gas-fired energy generation, gas storage and in modernising our electricity network to make our contribution to an environmentally friendly and secure supply of energy.
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