London, 25 October 2009 

A target for Britain to derive 30 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power by 2030 is needed to ensure planned cuts in the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy. 

The objective would double the share of nuclear power in Britain’s electricity mix. Unless that target was set, Mr de Rivaz said, there was likely to be additional investment in gas-fired generation. That would boost gas’s share of the energy mix and prevent emissions falling enough to meet the government’s targets.

“We are at a defining moment,” he said. “We need to move the argument forward from whether nuclear power is needed. True leadership is to say how much we need, and by when.”

French-owned EDF plans to be the first company to build a new wave of nuclear plants in Britain, and hopes to have the first one operational by the end of 2017.

It expects to have proposals for four reactors, two at Sizewell in Suffolk and two at Hinkley Point in Somerset, to submit to the government’s new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) when it starts work next March. EDF has invested £12.5bn in Britain’s nuclear industry by buying British Energy, and with new reactors potentially costing £5bn a time, its plans will mean a further £20bn of investment.

The 30 per cent target would mean about 15,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity, which is not far from what is already proposed. EDF’s plans add up to 6,400MW, and Eon and RWE, the German energy groups, have formed a joint venture for nuclear new build which has signalled it could invest in a further 6,000MW.

However, Mr de Rivaz said the government needed to set a lead to underpin those investment plans.

The target could be included in the National Policy Statement for nuclear energy, due in the first half of next month, he added.

Setting such an objective would match the government’s commitment through its membership of the European Union to source 30 per cent of Britain’s electricity from renewables by 2020.

By 2050, it is widely accepted, electricity generation will have to be carbon-free, with power coming from a mix of renewables, nuclear, and fossil fuel plants that capture and store their carbon dioxide emissions.

Mr de Rivaz raised the possibility that carbon capture and storage, which has yet to be demonstrated in a large-scale integrated project, might fail to work, for technical or commercial reasons. In that case, he said, either Britain would have to rely more heavily on nuclear power, or carbon dioxide emissions would not fall as hoped, or there would be power shortages.

Backing a significant expansion of nuclear power now was the “no regret” strategy, he added, because it would guarantee both security of supply and low emissions.

He also called on the Labour and Conservative parties not to damage international confidence in nuclear investment by overstating their differences in the run-up to next year’s election.

“The reality is that there is a consensus, and it has to be visible and tangible,” he said. He urged the Conservatives not to hold up the process of approving new reactors if they came to power. We want to be able to start pouring concrete in 2013. When the timing starts to become loose, then you lose control. So it is critical.”

Ends --

By Ed Crooks, Energy Editor, Financial Times