POWER May 2022 - 10

GLOBAL MONITOR
4. The UK's mix of fuels used to generate
power has evolved significantly in recent decades.
The country's total power supply was
22% lower in 2020 than in 2005, reflecting
lower demand due to improved energy efficiency.
As coal power began to decline in
the 1990s, gas-fired generation-from combined
cycle gas turbines-soared to replace
it, reaching its peak in 2008. Supply from nuclear
grew to its peak in 1998 before falling in
2010 due to outages. Renewable generation,
mainly from offshore wind, onshore wind,
solar, hydropower, and biomass, has steadily
increased. Source: UK Statistics Authority
ect to final
investment decision (FID)
with £1.7 billion ($2.28 billion) in direct
government funding during the current
parliamentary session, as well as two
other projects to FID in the next parliament.
The government said it intends to
initiate a selection process for other projects
in 2023. " This is not a cap on ambition,
but a challenge to the industry to
come forward and compete for projects
and aim to come online this decade, " the
strategy declares.
The UK currently has one nuclear project
under construction comprising two
EPR reactors at the 3.2-GW Hinkley Point
C plant in Somerset, southwest England.
However, negotiations are ongoing between
the government and Hinkley Point
C developer EDF for a replica project
at Sizewell C in Suffolk, in eastern England.
While the strategy indicates that
the government will invest £100 million
($134 million) into Sizewell C, it also calls
for investments of up to £210 million
($281 million) to develop small modular
reactors (SMRs) with UK-based RollsRoyce,
whose 470-MWe UK SMR recently
entered the UK Office for Nuclear
Regulation's generic design assessment
process (Figure 5). Rolls Royce, notably,
is part of a UK-based industry consortium
that has announced plans to build
16 SMRs and wants to roll out the first
unit by the early 2030s.
According to the strategy, future
nuclear projects could be sited at eight
existing designated sites at Hinkley, Sizewell,
Heysham, Hartlepool, Bradwell,
Wylfa, Oldbury, and Moorside. Along
with launching a £120 million ($160 mil10
lion)
fund to " enable " new nuclear, the
government intends to set up a nucleardedicated
vehicle to support new-build
projects through development.
The UK's strategy also notably calls for
a rapid buildout of the country's offshore
wind capacity, boosting it from its current
35.5 GW capacity in 2021 to up to 50 GW
within a decade. Up to 5 GW of that new
offshore wind capacity could come from
floating offshore wind in deeper seas.
While the UK is already a global leader in
offshore wind, a rapid expansion will require
stringent policy reforms.
" The development and deployment of
offshore wind farms still takes up to 13
years, " the strategy notes. The strategy
will ambitiously seek to " cut the process
time by over half, " potentially reducing
government " consent time " from up to
four years to one year. The UK may also
make environmental considerations " at
a more strategic level, " and introduce
" strategic compensation environment
measures, " including for existing projects,
to reduce delays. In addition, the
UK will speed up its auction schedule
by a year so that the next auction will be
held in March 2023.
The strategy also seeks to bolster onshore
wind. While the UK already has an
onshore wind capacity of 14 GW, and a
strong pipeline in Scotland, the strategy
envisions grid enhancements in England
to support " a number of new projects. "
The government said it will also seek a
five-fold increase to the UK's current solar
capacity of 14 GW by 2035. Efforts will include
amended planning rules to encourage
rooftop solar, ground-mounted solar,
and large-scale projects on previously developed
or lower value land. In addition,
though not explicitly detailed in the strategy,
the government will look to exploit
the UK's tidal and geothermal potential.
The strategy attempts to address the
island nation's fuel woes by ramping up
domestic production of oil and gas from
new projects in the North Sea, as well as
potentially developing onshore shale gas
reserves. That effort targets a complete
phase-out of the UK's reliance on Russian
oil and coal by the end of 2022, and
imports of Russian liquefied natural gas
(LNG) " as soon as possible. " Instead, the
UK plans to deepen fuel import collaborations
with Qatar and the U.S., which it
hopes will establish the former European
Union (EU) member as an important entry
point for non-Russian supplies of gas.
As significantly, the energy strategy
foresees gas and power exports to the
EU through interconnections and LNG
terminals. " Gas is currently the glue that
holds our electricity system together and
it will be an important transition fuel, " the
strategy acknowledges. " We are taking a
balanced approach to this unique subterranean
asset. "
A key facet of this effort will involve developing
" hydrogen-ready " infrastructure
as well as four carbon capture, utilization,
and storage (CCUS) " clusters " by 2030 to
" future-proof " North Sea oil and gas supplies.
The UK's first two CCUS clusters in
the Northeast and Northwest include an
interesting array of gas-fired projects.
Plans notably also call for a 10-GW hydrogen
production capacity, at least 50%
of which could come from electrolytic
projects (including those fed by offshore
wind). The government wants to ensure
at least 1 GW of electrolytic hydrogen is in
operation or under construction by 2025
alongside an existing commitment of up
to 1 GW of CCUS-enabled hydrogen.
-Sonal Patel is a POWER senior
associate editor.
POWER Digest
5. Rolls-Royce, a nuclear reactor plant designer
since the start of the UK nuclear submarine
program in the 1950s, raised enough
equity to establish its small modular reactor
(SMR) business in November 2021 and trigger
a £210 million ($281 million) commitment
from the UK Research and Innovation funding
under the UK's " Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial
Revolution. " UK nuclear regulators on
April 1 began the first step of a generic design
assessment for the company's flagship UK
SMR, a 470-MWe pressurized water reactor
design. Courtesy: Rolls-Royce
www.powermag.com
Czech Republic Chooses Site for SMR
Development. CEZ Group, a major conglomerate
in the Czech Republic, in late
March said it had set aside an area at
the Temelin Nuclear Power Plant as a
possible location for the country's first
small modular reactor (SMR). Officials
said the location would not impact plans
to build two more large-scale units at
the nuclear plant, which already has
two 1,080-MW reactors. CEZ signed a
memorandum of understanding (MOU)
for construction of SMRs with NuScale
in September 2019, and a second
POWER | May 2022
http://www.powermag.com

POWER May 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER May 2022

POWER May 2022 - Cover1
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