The Energy Institute recently published its latest Statistical Review of World Energy. This annual Review, until recently produced by BP, is a highly credible source of energy data that stretches back 60 years allowing some observations of long-term energy trends. For example, we note that the UK’s electricity supply dipped below 300 Terawatt-hrs (TWh) for the first time since 1985, having peaked at 400 TWh in 2002. Renewables have grown dramatically over the last 25 years and now make up about half the UK’s generation, two thirds of which are derived from wind and solar technologies. Gas generation on the other hand has continued its slow decline and now accounts for just 30% of the total.
Most interesting is the remarkable rise in the global capacity of battery energy storage which has seen this sector grow from just 2 Gigawatt (GW) in 2015 to about 300 GW in 2025. The energy available from the latter for a 2-hour period of rapid frequency response and peak shaving is about 600 GWh. The UK’s storage capacity has also grown in this period amounting to a total of 9 GW in 2025 and can provide 18 GWh for a 2-hour period when the UK hits its maximum hour demand during a freezing winter evening of about 50 GWh of energy. Battery storage is a truly ‘disruptive’ technology bringing much needed flexibility, and competition, to the market.
The Review tells the story of the rise and fall of the main energy carriers of coal, oil and gas; the nuclear power sector has followed a similar profile, until now. The EI statistics show that nuclear generation in the UK grew steadily once the World’s first nuclear power station, Calder Hall in Cumbria, became operational in 1956, rising to a peak in 1998 when it contributed over a quarter to the total generation. In this period the UK built a fleet of 11 Magnox, 14 Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs) at 7 sites, and 1 Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR); today just 8 AGR reactors at 4 sites and the PWR station remain operational with the AGR group due to close in 2030 after 40 years of operation. In 2025 nuclear generation amounted to 36 TWh or just 12% of the total.
The Review is also a historical record and as such provides a basis to explore possible energy futures. Looking ahead, the nuclear sector will not go the way of the fossil sector, rather, there will be a renaissance, with three major developments providing a timely boost to the sector. There are two new reactors being constructed at Hinkley Point, an existing nuclear site in Somerset, using the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) technology. Each of these has a capacity of 1600 Megawatt (MW) so that when fully operational, these two reactors will generate about 26 TWh. The first is expected to be operating in 2030 with the second coming online the following year; together these will help offset the closure of the four remaining AGRs and continue to provide the baseload electricity needed to service the needs of the economy.
The time taken to deliver the Hinkley Point C project will be about 5 years longer than originally proposed, and the cost has gone up by a factor of 2 in real terms. This is disappointing and it is hoped that the experience gained and the supply chain capacity established in constructing these two reactors will be used at another nuclear site in Sizewell, Suffolk. Here two more reactors will be built using the same technology and scale and it is hoped will be delivered much closer to the proposed time and cost. The funding model is different with the UK government taking a major stake in the project; the two reactors are projected to come online in around 2040.
Between these two major, mainstream nuclear projects, the nuclear industry in the UK will trial the deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), arguably the future of the nuclear industry. The UK government will support the development of three SMRs at the existing nuclear site at Wylfa, in Anglesey. At 470 MW, these reactors are at the top of the scale for SMR technology, with each able to generate about 4 TWh each year. These reactors are modular in design and much of the technology is factory built and the expectation is that they should be constructed in a shorter time and at a lower cost than the mainstream technologies at Hinkley and Sizewell; all three SMRs are expected to be operating in the mid-2030s.
The projects at Hinkley, Wylfa and Sizewell together will amount to just under 8 GW of new nuclear plants and deliver about 65 TWh each year, equivalent to over 20% of today’s electricity supply. Further, the successful delivery of these first SMRs will open new opportunities for the nuclear industry in the UK and elsewhere. The economic, environmental and societal benefits of this new nuclear programme are significant: large quantities of low-carbon electricity for up to 60 years to help service, for example, the new energy demand associated with battery storage, data centres and electric vehicles, improved security of electricity supply, and the retention of thousands of highly skilled jobs. Alongside this nuclear renaissance in the UK, it is important the industry not only continues its excellent record on safe operation but also makes progress with its decommissioning and waste management programmes to retain public trust. It is an exciting time for the nuclear industry.
For more information on nuclear energy, see Who Needs Nuclear Power, Chris Anastasi, published by Routledge, 2021.