British Governments have decided that the future of energy supply includes nuclear energy. All very well and good, but no-one has yet come up with a friendly plan of what to do with spent nuclear fuel rods - these are currently dumped in the sea for future generations to suffer the pollution and radiation sickness that comes from them.
The current situation is that the French have been tasked to build a nuclear power station at Hinkley Point which will be owned by the Chinese although the whole thing will be paid for by British taxpayers. Quite why there is no British involvement in the building of it or the ownership of it is a mystery to me.
At the moment, Hinkley Point nuclear power station will cost a little over £30,000,000,000 to build. Once it is built, it will cost more money to maintain and then at the end of its life, it will cost an enormous amount of money to decommission (paid for by British taxpayers no doubt). Don't even think about what would happen if something goes wrong with it (remember Tschernobyl in Ukraine?) or it is attacked by terrorists and the obscene amount of money needed to put that right (paid for by British taxpayers).
After the Fukishama nuclear disaster, Germany decided to abandon nuclear power and put all its energy future in the hands of green energy - the energy of the present and the future. The Germans have a knack of getting things right and leaving the rest of the world behind when it comes to things like engineering. History has almost always been on its side.
A 4 kW photovoltaic system is enough to supply sufficient electricity for a large house in a large swathe of England south of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire where the supply of sunshine is good. Daylight powers photovoltaic panels to produce electricity. The sunnier the sky, the more power is produced.
On the assumption that a 4 kW photovoltaic system costs about £6,000 to purchase and install, if the cost of building Hinkley Point were to be diverted to pay for 4 kW photovoltaic systems, then 5,000,000 houses could be supplied with them and the ensuing 25 years of electricity before the system needs replacing.
Now, it is a bit rich to have the houses in the sunnier counties of England get these things for free paid for by the British taxpayer. The £30,000,000,000 could be used to subsidise these things - perhaps each house paying £2,000 which would be one-third of the cost with two-thirds paid for by the British taxpayer. That would allow 7,500,000 houses to enjoy solar powered electricity.
Taking this one step further, the government could subsidise even more houses every year for the same cost of maintaining Hinkley Point nuclear power station (without it being built of course).
If we wanted to be even more clever, the government could insist that those photovoltaic systems that are subsidised by the British taxpayer need to purchase one that the Energy Saving Trust recommends, thereby promoting British firms and their employees, so to help these firms prosper, provide employment within Great Britain and, wait for it, pay corporation tax to H.M. Treasury. That tax windfall might even pay for more photovoltaic panels! Gosh!
Are there guarantees that Energie de France, who are building Hinkley Point, and the Chinese owners will pay their fair share of corporation tax to H.M. Treasury and how would that be policed? I thought not. Don't be surprised if the French builders and Chinese owners do their utmost to siphon as much profit from Great Britain to France and China. Once Hinkley Point is built, what prevents the Chinese owners from holding Great Britain to ransom with outrageous charges for nuclear powered electricity?
Pity Somerset for having a corner of their picturesque county scarred.
Chinese fortune cookie anyone?