Latest from Chris Huhne

Britain needs low-carbon energy revolution -Huhne
Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:01pm GMT Print | Single Page [-] Text [+]
* No details revealed on charges for CO2 emissions

* Says nuclear needs no subsidies as mature technology

By Daniel Fineren

LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Britain needs an energy revolution centred on efficiency and low-carbon technology and possibly including nuclear power to meet binding targets for carbon emissions, energy minister Chris Huhne said on Thursday.

Faced with the closure of most of Britain's old coal-fired and nuclear power plants over the next decade, time is running out for the new coalition government of pro-nuclear Conservatives and nuclear-sceptic Liberal Democrats to give investors the certainty they need to build plants that will keep the lights on.

"We need to do some really quite radical things if we are to push through what is effectively a new industrial revolution," Huhne, a Liberal Democrat, told journalists in London.

"What we have to do again is create that new change so that the power, the energy for the new economy comes from low-carbon sources, which are actually going to be sustainable."

Huhne said the focus of the government's forthcoming Energy Bill would be to slash energy waste in homes across the country, which are responsible for about a quarter of total carbon emissions.

He declined to give any details on the government's plan to set a minimum charge on industrial plant for emitting climate-warming carbon dioxide, which should make nuclear and renewable energy more attractive to developers by increasing the costs of fossil fuel-fired power plants.

The government said earlier on Thursday it would press ahead with over 72 million pounds ($105.6 million) of funding for offshore wind projects, which are much more expensive than established technologies. Although the Conservative-led government wants to see a boom in renewables such as wind and marine energy, it will not dictate how much of each technology should be built over the next few years and will let the market decide, Huhne said.

"Nuclear is a mature technology. It doesn't require or deserve the sort of public subsidy that you would give to an infant technology, which is attempting to grow to a scale where it can wash its own face," he said.

"But if investors want to come forward, within the safety parameters, and actually build nuclear reactors, it's clear from the coalition agreement that they will be able to do so," he added.

Analysts say cheap gas, tight credit and uncertainty over long-term power prices will probably put off nuclear investors unless there are much higher penalties on carbon emissions or a radical reform of Britain's power market.

(Additional reporting by Tim Castle, editing by Jane Baird)

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