A newly-appointed government adviser has warned that the UK could face blackouts by 2016, unless new energy sources are developed to replace ageing power stations.
Professor David MacKay said that public opposition to developments such as nuclear power plants, windfarms and tidal barrages was partly to blame for the prospect of electricity shortages.
The Cambridge University researcher, who set out his warnings in a book entitled Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, will join the Department for Energy and Climate Change as special adviser on October 1.
Professor MacKay said if not attended to, the market would build new gas-powered stations in order fill the energy gap, which could risk the Government’s climate change targets.
The country’s carbon footprint can only be reduced through construction of renewable energy facilities on a large scale, he said.
He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “The scale of building required is absolutely enormous.”
Significant lifestyle changes to reduce energy consumption or buying in electricity generated abroad from renewable sources, such as solar panels in the desert, could serve as alternatives.
