Less wind, more nuclear needed for UK energy future

By Kwok W. Wan

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain needs to build more nuclear reactors and cleaner coal plants while putting less emphasis on wind power if it wants a secure low-carbon future, business lobby group CBI said on Monday.

Current government policy is making energy security and climate change targets harder to achieve because an emphasis on wind power will lead to less investment in other forms of low-carbon electricity generation, the group said in a report.

"Large chunks of our energy infrastructure urgently need replacing," deputy-director general of the CBI, John Cridland, said in a statement.

"While we have generous subsidies for wind power, we urgently need the national planning statements needed to build new nuclear plants. If we carry on like this we will end up putting too many of our energy eggs in one basket."

The business group warned that if its recommendations were not followed, power generation would be reliant on gas-fired power stations and predicted only 64 percent of the nation's energy would be generated by low carbon methods by 2030.

That would be below the 78 percent target recommended by the Committee on Climate Change, an independent body advising the government.

The CBI said its plan would lead to 83 percent of Britain's energy coming from low carbon sources. About a third of electricity would come from nuclear power while coal fired plants fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology would generate another 14 percent, the CBI said.

The remaining low carbon power generation would consist of wind and other renewables - such as tidal - while gas and non-clean coal would make up the rest, the report said.