Sadly, Britain’s electrical energy provision policy has been non-existent for the past 30 years. In response to the zero carbon initiative, ministers have invested in renewable sources of energy at the expense of the public and common sense.

They have argued that renewable energy is cheap, but it isn’t, as the green levies on our electricity bills are now telling us. They have been unable to comprehend that renewable energy is intermittent, so that we cannot rely on it to provide stable supplies of electricity to run our industry, to run our cars, and to heat our homes. 

So, what are our alternatives? In the growing realisation that renewables are not the answer, gas has come back into favour, even though it produces vast amounts of CO2. Now, due to the activities of Mr Putin, amongst others, gas is becoming a strategic weapon, and we are faced with hugely increased energy bills if we continue to burn gas to produce electricity.

Because of our lack of energy policy we seem incapable of making proper, appropriate, investment decisions to benefit the country. Rolls Royce could produce 100 modular nuclear “pressurised water reactor” systems in the time that it is going to take to finish Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C. This would produce stable, economically attractive, green electricity that the country now so desperately needs.

Roy Faulkner is Emeritus Professor of Materials Engineering at Loughborough University and has wide experience in the energy industry, particularly with coal and nuclear, and the drive to reduce emissions. He is currently a consultant with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.