Government Levies on Energy Bills

Caroline Lucas Excerpts

Monday 3rd March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)]

I am reluctant to interrupt the hon. Gentleman, because up until now I have agreed with everything he has said and I fear that my question might lead us to depart from that. Does he agree that if we compare the strike price for nuclear in 2023 with the price of offshore wind, onshore wind and even solar photovoltaics in 2023, we will see that nuclear is vastly more expensive, and that if we are serious about keeping energy bills down, it is ludicrous to support those technologies whose price is likely to go up, rather than those whose prices are coming down?

[Mr Yeo]

I had a hunch that that was the issue the hon. Lady would raise. For the most part I agree with a great deal of what she says on this and some other subjects. It is perfectly true that, arithmetically, nuclear is very expensive. I think that the decision, which I support, can be justified on only two grounds. The first is that I am uncertain that, even with all the other support, we will be able to generate enough electricity from low-carbon renewables to meet the targets we have set for 2020 and beyond, from 2030 through to 2050. It would need some pretty heroic assumptions about the roll-out of some of the technologies to think that we could replace the whole of the electricity currently generated by nuclear with electricity from other low-carbon sources.

Secondly, I think there is a real prospect—though I do not suppose I will carry the hon. Lady on this point—of the cost of nuclear coming down substantially if we see a big expansion of the industry. Nuclear power stations in China, for example, are going to become almost a commodity given the number that will be rolled out. In the 2020s, we might find that we will be able to buy them off the peg at a much lower price than the admittedly high price currently expected for Hinkley Point.

[Mr Yeo]

I met the Eggborough management recently and it made similar, strong points to me. I am sure my right hon. Friend the Minister will be able to shed some light on the situation in his winding-up speech.

[Caroline Lucas]

It is not just a question of heroic assumptions about renewables. Actually, I think those assumptions are not so heroic, particularly if we add community energy and energy efficiency, which along with conservation is always the poor cousin in this debate. We know that we could make huge inroads on the amount of energy we use if we were serious about that. If we combine that with renewables, there is plenty of evidence from the Centre for Alternative Technology and many others that we could get the nuclear reductions we need without nuclear or more fossil fuels.