Coal, nuclear power stations can revive future power crisis in the UK

To plug the predicted shortfall of electricity in the next decade, the UK government should consider extending the lifespan of coal and nuclear facilities, says a veteran energy policy analyst. Ian Fells, emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle in a report stated that the energy shortfall could dent the country’s economy, leading to businesses crashing and hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs in the next decade.
The impending energy gap will be caused by the closure of the UK’s old nuclear and coal-fired power stations over the next decade. The report indicates that the UK will lose a third of electricity generating capacity in this time either due to old age power stations or European Union carbon emissions restrictions that come into force in 2015.

Fells says that to fill the impending shortage of energy, the country should build more nuclear power stations and keep the existing and ageing nuclear and coal plants going. Citing the 12 hour power cut in London in 2003, due to which the country sufferred financial losses upto almost