The electricity calculator gives you the opportunity to choose how you would like the UK’s electricity to be generated in 2020.
Once you have made your choice, the calculator will work out the possible impact in terms of carbon emissions, whether you managed to keep the lights on and how it will affect people’s annual bills.
The total demand for electricity in the UK is 358 billion kilowatt hours. The main sources of supply are:
- Fossil fuels: 253 bn kWh
- Nuclear: 80 bn kWh
- Renewable: 15 bn kWh
- Imports: 10 bn kWh
In 2020, the UK’s demand is projected to have grown to 381 billion kilowatt hours.
For cost comparison, the calculator uses the 2003 average household figure of £250, since when in reality the average cost has risen. For further details and an explanation of how the calculator works, see the links above on the right.[4]
Even if Britain built ten new reactors, nuclear power can only deliver a 4 per cent cut in carbon emissions sometime after 2025. Even the Government admits this (Sustainable Development Commission figure). It's too little too late at too high a price.
• Most of the gas we use is for heating and hot water and for industrial purposes. Nuclear power cannot replace that energy. And it's a similar case for oil as it's virtually all used for transport - nuclear power can't take its place.
• Indeed, 86 per cent of our oil and gas consumption is for purposes other than producing electricity. So nuclear power, which can only generate electricity, is almost irrelevant.
• The real solutions to the energy gap and climate change are available now. , , and state of the art stations like they have in Scandinavia. Together they have the potential to deliver reliable low carbon energy quicker and cheaper. They are also safe and globally applicable, unlike nuclear. But these technologies will be strangled if cash and political energy get thrust at nuclear power.
• Gordon Brown very recently committed the UK to generating around 40 per cent of our electricity from renewable by 2020. If he means it, Britain could become a world leader in clean energy and his case for nuclear evaporates. At the moment Germany has 300 times as much solar power and 10 times as much wind power installed as the UK and has given up on nuclear. [1]
Many environmental groups remain unconvinced that the UK needs a nuclear renaissance.
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