‘Wylfa Newydd will help UK fulfil carbon pledges’
THE developer behind Wylfa Newydd says the Nuclear for Net Zero report – which sets out the key role nuclear can play in helping the UK meet its climate change goals – “goes to the heart” of why the scheme should be restarted.
The report from the independent Energy Systems Catapult shows that an optimised approach to delivering a net zero energy system includes a significant proportion of new nuclear capacity.
Wylfa Newydd is currently on hold after talks between parent company Hitachi and the UK Government failed to produce a funding agreement.
Planning on the scheme continued, with a decision from Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary
Alok Sharma due this year.
Horizon Nuclear Power chief executive Duncan Hawthorne said: “This report shows yet again how nuclear, alongside other clean technologies, can and must be part of the UK’s low-carbon future.
“The analysis also, rightly, sets out the challenge to the industry in terms of cost-reduction and we are confident – given our proven design and world-leading partners – we can deliver against this.
“It also goes to the heart of why we are determined to try and ensure that our development at Wylfa Newydd is restarted. An operational Wylfa Newydd will provide enough clean electricity to meet all of Wales’ power demand, domestic and industrial.
“This would, effectively, make Wales’ electricity supply net zero by the early 2030s, delivering on the UK Government’s pledge decades early, and also helping to answer the Welsh Government’s declaration of a climate change emergency.”
Yesterday in the House of Commons, Ynys Môn MP Virginia Crosbie raised the important role nuclear power has in the production of hydrogen.
Ms Crosbie said: “Large-scale hydrogen production will be vital in our efforts to reach net zero by 2050, helping to decarbonise heating, shipping and aviation.
“However, we cannot rely on unproven technologies, or carbonintensive processes, to make it.”
She continued: “Nuclear power can provide a cost-effective, efficient and carbon-free means of producing hydrogen, either through electrolysis or by using the primary heat from power stations.
“I’m glad to have had to opportunity to raise this issue directly with Government ministers, highlighting that Wylfa Newydd is the jewel in the crown of new nuclear sites.
“Wylfa Newydd is a shovel-ready project which will provide around 850 long-term, high-quality jobs on Ynys Môn, with 20,000 roles during construction, and will be crucial in making net zero a reality.
“I’m working hard with colleagues in Parliament, Welsh Government and on the island to get the project going.”