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So if the CO2 price is pitched for new nucs to be economic against gas generation, wind generation should be even more profitable if this US CEO is right and the economics are roughly the same over here. Though this was a sales pitch for incentives, so we need to be a bit careful with his evidence.

Providing enough subsidy to tilt the playing field so nucs are built will be pretty tricky. I wonder how clearly Ed understands this yet.

Here is the link and quote:

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=80f64c95-1286-4fc5-aefd-6afc4e261137

“New wind generating capacity ranges from $45 to $80 per ton depending on the location. New nuclear generating capacity is $75 per ton. A new integrated gasification combined cycle plant with carbon capture and sequestration costs $160 per ton.”

Basically we have to have some way to produce base load electricity. Couple into the mess that our CO2 generating power stations are aged (the daft way that electricity generation was privatised meant that it was not economic to upgrade power stations) and it means that we are desperate to build *something*.

Here’s some figures from the Scottish Executive. By 2025 *all* existing power stations in Scotland will be closed. The Scottish Executive want to generate half of the country’s electricity by renewable methods by 2020, but the cost of that has been estimated at £100bn. It is not clear what will be used to generate the other half, or where the £100bn will come from.

I don’t have the figures for England, but I guess they are similarly doom-laden, but on a scale ten times larger. So frankly there are very few options available. There must be some base load generation and to keep to CO2 targets that means nuclear. As you say, there will have to be some public subsidy, but that is a price we will have to pay to stop our lights going out.

At least Labour is talking about nuclear power. The Tories currently have their heads in the sand and are more concerned with NIMBYs than the vast majority of us that need electricity. The Tories are also extremely unlikely to put any subsidy into any electricity generation, which means that if there is a Cameron government there is a very high chance of the lights going out towards the end of his first (and hopefully only) administration.