The power to change

摘要

Unlike most other industrialised na-tions, Britain has long had the good fortune to be self-sufficient in energy. Partly because of that it has, for the past decade, pursued an unusually free-market approach towards electricity generation. Over the next ten years, however, the government's commitment to that policy will be tested. Oil and gas production from the North Sea is running down, meaning that Britain will rely increasingly on imports. That will coincide with big changes in the electricity market, as many of Britain's coal and nuclear power plants (which between them produce just over half of the nation's electricity) begin to go off-line. For nuclear power, the problem is age. Atom-splitting provides a fifth of Britain's electricity, but most of the reactors are decades old and near the end of their operational lives. Ten years from now, nuclear's share of generation is expected to fall to 11%; by 2020 it will be just 7%.