The British government is going to sub the Chinese and EDF to build a new reactor for Hinkley Point nuclear power station. Estimates suggest Hinkley will cost £25 billion to build. But, as is the way with such things there will be delays and hidden costs. Look at London 2012 Olympics, the original estimate when we were applying to host it said something like £3billion if I remember rightly, total cost ended up being three times that, although they claimed a half a billioon saving overall!
So, let’s be generous, Hinkley will power 6 million homes eventually and probably the total bill (not counting ongoing costs) might be £50 billion. Now, solar power isn’t perfect, basically cloudy days and energy storage are an issue, but we could save a few Watts of nuclear if we panelled up those 6 million homes instead of lumbering ourselves with outdated nuclear technology. Solar cost is currently about 6000-9000 per home, so giving away the panels would cost about £42 billion, which might leave £8 billion or so to install biogas-powered fuel cells, or a couple of wind farms to help make up the difference, and all without having to dispose of nuclear waste from old-school nuclear tech…