New figures show the lights may go out sooner than we thought

Christopher Booker,Telegraph
"Figures published last week reveal that the moment when Britain’s lights start going out may be much closer than previously predicted. Thanks in part to the hammering they took in the abnormal cold of last winter, six large coal-fired power stations which supply a fifth of Britain’s average electricity needs have now used up more than half of the 20,000 running hours they are each allowed under the EU’s Large Combustion Plants directive. When they reach that limit they will have to shut down.

Furthermore, in two years’ time, the Government’s new “carbon tax” will make them £600 million a year more expensive to run. Their mainly German owners will therefore want to use up as many of those hours as possible before a charge of £16 for every ton of CO2 they emit comes into force in 2013. ....Ever since the Blair government’s disastrous 2003 Energy White Paper, which in effect turned its back on replacing coal-fired and nuclear power stations in favour of renewable energy, it has been clear that we would eventually face a 40 per cent shortfall in our electricity supplies."