Kevin McCullough, RWE chief technology officer

It has long been predicted that the UK faces an acute energy gap in the near future. The recent cold weather threw those claims into focus, with the National Grid sourcing additional gas supplies from Russia to meet demand and warning large industrial customers to ease off on fuel use.

The government has backed new nuclear-power stations, but gaining approval for any new generating plant, from coal to nuclear and renewables, has proved difficult under the UK’s planning system.

Is it then a gloomy and frustrating time to be in the power-generation industry? Not at all, according to Kevin McCullough, chief technology officer of RWE Npower. ‘I always try to emphasise how exciting this sector is,’ he said. ‘This decade will see the biggest rebirth of energy infrastructure since the Second World War.’

Over the next few years, a large chunk of the UK’s 80GW of installed capacity will need replacing for one reason or another, he explained. The last Magnox nuclear reactor, at Wylfa, will stop generating within 12 to 18 months. British Energy’s advanced gas-cooled reactors will reach the end of their lives between around 2013 to 2017. The EU large-combustion-plant directive will lead to the phasing out of older, less efficient coal-fired plants. ‘Of the 80GW, 35-40 per cent will be dead and gone by the end of the decade,’ McCullough said. ‘We have to replace those assets against an ever-changing political landscape of what’s acceptable.’