“One of the foundation stones of thriving economies is access to cheap, abundant and reliable energy” says the UK government’s energy strategy. It was published in March this year and so I expect the Conservatives have put it in the bin already, but for now it’s the clearest indicator of their energy priorities. And at the top of that list is “delivering Great British Nuclear”.
This is an interesting choice for a strategy that aims to deliver cheap energy. Here’s a chart from Our World in Data, showing how the price of electricity from different sources has changed.
Some of these figures will have changed since 2019, but during that decade energy got cheaper for every technology except one – nuclear power. It’s the only form of electricity generation that got more expensive over that ten year period. If affordability is the big concern, nuclear is not the obvious choice.
What are the cheapest forms of power? Solar and wind. These are global prices, and the UK doesn’t get as much sun as some other places. So for us, onshore wind is the cheapest form of power.
Onshore wind is still banned by the Conservatives. Ukraine, under war conditions, built more wind turbines last year than were erected in England.
Diversity is important in an energy system, so it’s not an either/or between nuclear and renewable energy. We should do both. But even if nuclear remains controversial, banning the cheapest form of electricity is deeply foolish – especially since the opposition to wind turbines is on aesthetic grounds, which in turn is a minority opinion.
The government’s own figures show that 80% of people support onshore wind power. As Malachi Chadwick points out, it’s easier to find someone who doesn’t like pizza than someone who doesn’t support wind power.
Possible have been running a campaign to overturn the blocking of onshore wind, and you will find the latest news and actions there.
The Earthbound Report 
A good post. Thank you 🙏🌍