UK energy under threat from China, Russia

London - The UK's nuclear expansion plans could be derailed by a lack of skills and resources as global engineering firms move to focus on supporting China's  far larger and more dynamic nuclear energy programme, the Economic Research Council has warned

 With seven plants under construction, 24 planned and no less than 76 proposed China's nuclear programme easily dwarfs that of any other country, the RC notes in its Digest of Energy Statistics 2008. Unlike the UK, China imposes few regulatory and planning requirements for new nuclear-build, the report also points out. 

Calling on the UK government to address these concerns, ERC research director Dan Lewis stated:  "If the UK continues to place all its nuclear eggs in the EDF/Areva basket, the government must wake up to the reality that major orders from China will torpedo that strategy."

The ERC report also sounds the alarm on other energy issues, not least gas - "The most compelling long-term statistic is simply that over 55% of gas reserves are located in the Russian Federation, Iran & Qatar. Worryingly, neither Iran nor Russia enjoys cordial relations with the UK at present.

On a more upbeat note, the UK emerges in the report as a relatively energy efficient economy. "Contrary to received opinion, the UK - with a world ranking of 7  - is ahead of Germany and behind only Switzerland, Denmark and Ireland in Europe," said ERC. The UK is estimated to produce a healthy $940 of output per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) input. It is however some way behind the world champion, Hong Kong, who produced $1,554 per boe. 

Meanwhile, the report finds that the lowest electricity prices in the EU are in Bulgaria at EUR 0.068 per KWh and the highest are in Denmark at EUR 0.245 per KWh. The lowest gas prices in the EU are in Lithuania at EUR 0.025 per KWh and highest in Denmark at EUR 0.117 per KWh.

According to the ERC, the Digest of Energy Statistics 2008 is the first annual report which includes selected World and EU rankings on electricity consumption, energy reserves, electricity and gas prices, energy efficiency, carbon efficiency and the comparative cost of electricity generating technologies.