Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the average decommissioning costs of (a) nuclear power stations, (b) offshore wind turbines, (c) onshore wind turbines, (d) coal-powered power stations, (e) gas-powered power stations, (f) solar farms, (g) tidal lagoons, (h) biomass generation and (i) anaerobic digesters.

The Department published estimates of the costs of nuclear decommissioning in 2010. [1] It was calculated that for a generic Pressurised Water Reactor with a capacity of 1.35GW operating for 40 years, decommissioning and waste management costs were in the range £800m – £1800m.

For offshore wind farms, the developers of some projects have provided my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State with estimates for the cost of decommissioning their wind farms under the provisions of the Energy Act 2004. On the basis of this information, the estimated cost of decommissioning offshore wind farms is around £700,000 per turbine.

A report on the economic impacts of onshore wind published jointly by the Department and RenewableUK in May 2012 [2] estimated that the cost of decommissioning each turbine as being in the region of £60,000.

The Department has not produced estimates for the average or typical costs of decommissioning for other types of energy generating assets.

[1] Consultation on a Methodology to Determine a Fixed Unit Price for Waste Disposal and Updated Cost Estimates for Nuclear Decommissioning, Waste Management and Waste Disposal, March 2010:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/42533/1_20100324145948_e____ConsultationonFixedUnitPricemethodologyandupdatedcostestimates.pdf

2 Onshore Wind Direct & Wider Economic Impacts, May 2012 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/48359/5229-onshore-wind-direct--wider-economic-impacts.pdf.