UKs power supply future looks dismal

With the UK government’s energy policies in disarray, there is widespread concern that the future does not look too bright. Having already faced neglect from the government, the fight is on now to take drastic measures to keep the country’s power supply secure.

However, incessant hurdles presented by environmentalists and rules set up by the EU have made the situation worse. The country now stands to become totally dependent on power supply from outside its borders, a solution that is neither economically viable nor secure.

By year 2015, the country may lose up to forty percent of its energy manufacturing assets which are desperately needed by a nation that is hungry for energy. This is because several nuclear power plants are in disuse and 9 of the largest coal and oil plants have shut shop due to EU concerns of rising pollution.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has hopes of defusing this crisis by developing a fresh lot of nuclear power houses. However since Britain’s only expert in setting up nuclear plants; Westinghouse has been sold, the country is now dependent on France. The government’s efforts to sell British Energy to French power company EDF don’t look as if will be successful. Even if they do, the nuclear plants are unlikely to come up in the short period of time before a power crisis hits the UK. Immediate solutions that present themselves are setting up numerous gas plants which are also derived from countries like Russia. Or a more viable alternative would be to set up coal fired power stations. This too is not a very attractive prospect as UK is already dependent on South Africa and Russia for a good part of its coal requirement.