According to the Telegraph last night
"The list of areas earmarked for power stations to be built by 2025, according to sources close to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is: Bradwell in Essex, Hartlepool in County Durham, Heysham 2 in Lancashire, Hinkley Point in Somerset, Oldbury in South Gloucestershire, Sellafield in Cumbria, Sizewell C in Suffolk and Wylfa Head on Anglesey".
As I have said before, this could mean that there is a great opportunity for Wales to become a real centre of expertise in this sector, and it is now up to the Welsh Assembly Government to ensure that European Structural Funding can be used effectively to help build up value added projects for the new power station. For example, helping to create an energy technology park around the new development and ensuring that the skilled workforce needed for the power station and its construction are sourced locally are just two simple examples on how the project could benefit the Anglesey economy.
I fully expect WAG to announce a detailed strategy for supporting the Wylfa B development and how it will benefit the local economy over the next few months.
Whilst Anglesey will be celebrating, some in South Wales will be in a very different mood, if the Independent is to be believed.
According to a report out today, "Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy, will tomorrow jettison the world's largest tidal energy project, rather than make the taxpayer foot an estimated bill of £10bn to £30bn for the untested technology".
I am sure there will be those who will be outraged at this decision but, as the Independent comment section states, "a realistic, economically hard-headed green strategy is right to discard tidal power in favour of the "holy trinity" of low-carbon energy: nuclear, clean coal and wind".
The battle now is to ensure that Wales is in a position to take advantage of government policy in these three areas. Certainly, North Wales could be reaping an economic bonanza in terms of nuclear and wind but it is now imperative that South Wales fully participates in any plans for clean coal technology.
