Jack sharke's List: Investing in Green Energy

• Ten sites in England and Wales have been chosen by ministers as suitable for new nuclear power plants, paving the way for the most ambitious reactor construction programme in Europe.
• Only five of the sites have so far been identified by generators with specific nuclear new-build plans. Between them the companies plan to build up to 12 new plants on those sites by the end of the 2020s. The remaining five sites will create an opportunity for further expansion.
• a leading generator dropped out of the race to build a demonstration plant.
• The other policy statements set out by Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, covered areas such as wind farms and gas storage, again with the intention of facilitating planning approvals.

  • Heard from Johnathon that Europe is big on renewable energy sources, and ethics. If true then a big part of the global green drive will happen in Europe.
• If the 10-12 new reactors now planned are built, nuclear power is likely to be supplying about 30 per cent of Britain’s electricity by the end of the 2020s.
• Mr Miliband ruled out the idea of a special subsidy for nuclear but left open the possibility of an incentive available to all forms of low-carbon electricity including renewables and clean coal.
• The two companies still in the race are ScottishPower, owned by Iberdrola of Spain, and Eon, the German-owned group that hopes to fit carbon capture to part of its controversial proposed new coal-fired plant at Kingsnorth, Kent.

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