Scotland May Follow Germany's No Nuclear Plan

The recent decision in Germany to begin completely phasing out nuclear dependancy has sparked a rather heated debate within Scottish politics. With Germany having declared plans to shut all their nuclear power stations by 2022, they will be by far the largest industrial power to have taken this step. Moreover it would seem that if the SNP have their way then Scotland will be following suit.

A prominent SNP politician has been quoted as saying it demonstrates the same "route that Scotland wishes to go down". The Nationalist MSP's were all over the announcement as soon as it was made with the Energy Minister Fergus Ewing claiming that the decision in Germany "adds further weight" to the SNP's plans for Scotland to be entirely dependent on renewables within 10 years.

That being said its not all positive from Scotland the Scottish Conservative's energy spokesman Jackson Carlaw has said that the plan for Scotland to be nuclear free by 2020 shows "extreme recklessness" and if a shortfall in energy should occur then we would be forced to buy nuclear energy from England.

It appears from all the back and forth between the two parties, that it comes down to a question of, will renewables be able to meet the demands that nuclear energy currently satisfies, within the rather ambitious time scale that the SNP have set?

As it stands at the moment it seems the SNP have been unable to provide any assurances as to whether renewables will be able to meet this demand or even how they intend to go about implementing what is certainly an ambitious idea.

Personally, I think it would be a good idea to see how the Germans get on first, and use their experiences to help decide what the best choice is for our nation.

Posted
Views