Britain needs nuclear energy to meet demand

sir – Peak energy provision in the UK is now at around 80 gigawatts, but the switch to electric cars and electric home and office heating systems will each require another 80 gigawatts.

Renewables can only reach half this demand, and are intermittent. So we will have cold, unlit houses and gridlock on the roads when the sun isn’t shining and the wind not blowing.

The lack of a consistent energysupply policy by successive governments since 2008 has meant that we are already unable to provide for our existing peak-energy demand when the weather is unfavourable.

We need not just three new nuclear stations at Hinkley Point, Sizewell, and Bradwell, giving us maybe 10 gigawatts, but another 10 to ensure a stable energy supply in time for the great environmental transition in 2030. This is against the background of our current advanced gas-cooled reactors all being phased out by 2030 – so we are running just to stand still with regard to nuclear energy.

After 2030, the government should realise that there is little choice but to burn natural gas to fill the stable base-supply power gap of 90 gigawatts. But it cannot do this and remain green.

Carbon sequestration could provide a large part of the solution, but we still need an additional 30-40 gigawatts from nuclear. Fifty Rolls-royce 660 megawatt units, which are virtually available “off the shelf ”, seem an attractive option.

Professor R G Faulkner Loughborough, Leicestershire