|
30 May 2008 - The UK's second biggest gas and electricity supplier, Scottish and Southern Energy, warned the power industry stood on the brink of radical change.
Centralised fossil fuel fired generation would have to give way to a combination of energy efficiency and diversity of generation, he told The Guardian.
"The days of meeting an unchecked demand for energy through monolithic carbon intensive power stations are coming to an end. Increasingly the emphasis will be on energy efficiency, renewables, cleaned up fossil fuel plant and micro generation," the company said in a statement accompanying its full-year results.
SSE's comments came as the government clashed with environmentalists over the role of nuclear generation in meeting Britain's energy needs.
Friends of the Earth has launched a special report attacking the "voodoo economics" of nuclear, which criticised the industry's performance over the last 50 years and warned that a new generation of nuclear reactors would require huge amounts of taxpayers' cash.
In response the energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, said: "Within the space of two days Friends of the Earth have told us we not only need to wean ourselves off oil, but that we should also close our minds to nuclear power, one of the cheapest forms of low carbon energy available."
SSE, which currently gets 15 per cent of its energy from nuclear suppliers, said it believed "one more tranche of nuclear power stations will be necessary, but that the deployment of such power stations should be minimised through the maximum exploitation of renewable energy sources."
Chief executive Ian Marchant said SSE was not one of the companies looking at bidding for British Energy but would be involved in possible partnership arrangements with companies with nuclear expertise.
SSE's comments came as the company announced that full year pre-tax profits had risen 13.9 per cent to £1.23bn in the last financial year. The profits increase was helped by a rise in the number of its energy supply customers of 700 000 to 8.45 million.
Marchant said that in the wake of the latest oil price spike the pressure on supply margins in the industry was "intolerable" and the industry "has done well not to respond so far".
The SSE chief executive said the company had no plans to increase prices but warned that without a sharp correction in energy commodity prices "we have this belief something will have to happen".
"Can I see oil falling below $130? Yes. Can I see it falling back to $90? No."
| 
Articles 
| View all PennWell sites | View all PennWell events
Add RSS Feed
