After months of apparent indecision, it looks like Hinkley Point C will, at last, get its final investment decision in the next few days. I am delighted.
We are one of the largest economies on the planet and so comparisons with other much smaller countries that operate without baseload generation are fanciful. We cannot compromise on our energy security – the lights must stay on – and nuclear is the best way of providing that security.
Yet I have no doubt that these will be the last set of large nuclear power stations that we build. Our energy future is in distributed generation through renewables with batteries in the home, business, distribution network and on the National Grid. A digitised energy system will give huge opportunities for demand management with all the benefits that brings too. However I know from my meetings with Panasonic, Tesla and others that, right now, storage alongside renewables is not yet price competitive with New Nuclear.
Against the current wholesale price of electricity, the £92.50 strike price is expensive but so is just about every other form of new generation too. It is why so few power stations are being built at the moment. The reality, however, is that we don’t know what the wholesale price will do. Oil and gas prices will probably go up and the electrification of our heat and transport systems may well lead to an increase in demand not met by an increase in supply.
Just as important is the phenomenal industrial opportunity that Hinkley represents for Somerset. Tens of thousands of highly skilled, quality and well paid jobs; hundreds of millions of pounds of investment; and in the National Nuclear College, the start of a University of Somerset. This is a game changing opportunity for our county.