Emmanuel Macron says gas prices are providing 'strong pressure'
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Mr Macron and Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet on Sunday in the hope of alleviating tensions after French Ministers Annick Girardin said Paris could “implement sanctions” on electricity over the dispute. EDF, a French state-run energy company, produces about a fifth of the UK’s power and it has more capacity in Britain than in any market outside France. Environmental Secretary George Eustice warned that the UK would retaliate if Paris follows through with threats amid a row over post-Brexit fishing rights.
Government defence advisor Nicholas Drummond has told Express.co.uk that this could mean moving “to prevent EDF from trading further in the UK”.
And Rolls-Royce could hammer the final nail in the coffin with their incredible new project for the future.
The former Army officer added: “As we move towards net zero targets, the need for green energy will see traditional power generation replaced by more eco-friendly solutions.
“This will make the UK more energy independent anyway.
“If the UK is forced to generate more of its own energy as well as to supply the Channel Islands, it will do whatever is necessary to meet our shared needs.
“Developments such as Rolls-Royce mini nuclear reactors show that there are realistic alternatives.”
It comes after Brexit Britain struck a historic £210million deal with the British multinational aerospace and defence company.
They will create a fleet of nuclear mini-reactors to power the UK and help it reach net zero by 2050.
Paul Stein, Rolls Royce’s CTO told Express.co.uk: “We have developed what’s called a microgrid solution for islanded power which is where you combine together solar and wind, and battery packs to minimise energy use for islanded power requirements.
“And our Small Modular Reactor (SMR) programme is huge for UK industry.
“SMRs are the lowest cost way we no to achieve net zero, to power our homes, our industries, and other parts of the economy.
“Nuclear is absolutely vital, there are large reactors under construction and then we will see the SMRs in parallel with those driving down the cost.”
Mr Stein explained that these SMRs have huge potential to provide masses of power to the UK.
The Rolls Royce chief also assured that this would bring a huge boost to the UK economy, with 40,000 jobs and a huge export potential with the potential to make “a significant contribution to net zero and a revived UK economy”.
“Our ambition is to get to a place where the consumer doesn’t see any price difference between net zero electricity and the electricity they get today through fossil fuels.
“An SMR takes up less than two football pitches in terms of its footprint, and it can power half a million homes, or a city the size of Leeds, that’s the sort of output you get these things.
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“It’s not just electric power as SMRs are also used to generate hydrogen which decarbonises other bits of the economy like buses and trucks.”
This transition is vital ahead of COP26, as Britain will be looking to showcase its plans to transition away from fossil fuels as it seeks to decarbonise and become less reliant on energy imports.
France has supplied electricity to the UK through an undersea cable since the Eighties, and EDF took a hold of the UK energy retail market in 1998 when it bought London Electricity.
10 years later, it paid £12.5bn for British Energy, who owned Britain’s nuclear power fleet.
That meant that eight nuclear power plants, as well as wind farms and other generators, were handed over to EDF, which now produces about a fifth of the UK’s power.
If SMRs takeover, those nuclear power plants will become less important and France will not be able to have such a large portion of the UK’s energy in its hands.
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