The government should be exploring the possibility of using incentive payments to encourage early closure of some of Britain’s coal-fired generating plant, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research in a new paper British Energy: crisis or opportunity? Published against a background of closing power stations and collapsed wholesale prices the report argues that closing the more CO2-emitting power stations would reduce chronic overcapacity, stabilise power prices at a more sustainable level, assist CO2 reduction, help achieve security of supply by providing more security of investment, and create a more coherent energy policy. Author Alex Evans commented “recent events have shown that market forces alone cannot guarantee supply security or climate change objectives.”
