Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster members have decades of experience in the nuclear sector and have recently welcomed new entrants into the market including Last Energy, whose focus on rapidly scaling existing nuclear technology for the industrial sector has widened the conversation around nuclear’s role in achieving net zero and delivering energy security.
As the UK increases its commitment to nuclear development, small modular reactors like Last Energy’s PWR-20 bring the potential for nuclear development to our industrial estates and other hard to decarbonize sectors.
Recent energy price surges have increased energy costs to such an extent that they have held back growth for some. Could nuclear not only help deliver net zero and energy security but also reinvigorate business growth?
Who is Last Energy?
CD: Last Energy is a pioneering nuclear-as-a-service company, delivering clean, stable power directly to industrial customers, particularly in carbon-intensive sectors.
With a standard 20 MW power plant design, we tailor the number of units to meet our customers’ needs.
With Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for electricity or heat we secure contracted revenue, enabling us to attract private project financing. Our approach ensures affordability, sustainability, and supply security for our customers and communities.
With Great British Nuclear’s launch event just a few weeks back, where do you see the role of nuclear energy over the next decade in the UK? Where does it fit in the UK’s Net Zero goals?
CD: The recent launch of Great British Nuclear (GBN) highlights the UK’s renewed focus on nuclear energy over the next decade. The UK’s goal to deliver 24GW by 2050 is timely, as eight reactors are set to retire by 2028, leaving only 4.4GW of nuclear capacity when Hinkley Point C is completed.
While GBN’s immediate focus is on a competitive process for small modular reactor (SMR) technology vendors, their broader mission is project delivery. With our unique business model and ability to secure private project finance, Last Energy is well-suited to collaborate with GBN on this wider goal.
Together, we aim to swiftly deploy micro-modular nuclear plants that will power UK industry to net zero, creating hundreds of jobs in the process.
What are the main challenges facing the so-called nuclear renaissance?
CD: The nuclear renaissance has been driven by growing government support and investor interest, backed up by strong public support for nuclear as a climate and energy solution.
For this momentum to result in a new era of nuclear-powered energy abundance, nuclear must achieve scalable commercialisation.
To change the world, nuclear has to move from being underwritten by governments to being backed by private project capital. Last Energy achieves this by making nuclear a marketable product – we focus on selling energy, not just reactors.
Our plants are small enough to fit easily on both a football pitch and on a private balance sheet; their full modularisation greatly reduces build time which in turn reduces capital costs. We are our own developer and operator, delivering energy to our customers through a simple PPA so that they can rely on 24/7 clean energy from a dedicated source.
What other trends are you seeing in the wider energy market?
CD: The energy market’s key trend is high and volatile prices. UK wholesale prices rank among the highest in Europe, with a heavy dependence on gas imports (50%).
Complicating the market further is the increased reliance on intermittent sources of energy, a retiring nuclear fleet, and the increased demands that come with net zero and ‘electrify everything’.
This summer witnessed the UK reverting to coal plants to meet energy demand, and the initiation of new drilling licences in the North Sea.
This has put a premium on long term price stability and is pushing large energy users to get off grid, or at least off grid-pricing. Usually using either over-the-grid PPAs or on-site captive assets. At Last Energy we are working hard to deliver our product as a solution to these difficult market conditions.
With an increasingly global but also more complex and volatile marketplace, how can nuclear contribute to energy security? How does it compare in terms of price?
CD: Nuclear energy is scalable, reliable, clean, has a high capacity factor, and can deliver both heat and electricity; ensuring it can be the backbone of national industrial energy supply.
We may need all forms of clean energy to achieve Net Zero but no other source can boast all of the nuclear’s strengths. It is a complete alternative to the hydrocarbons which currently fuel British industry.
Last Energy will strengthen customers’ energy security because nuclear power delivers.
Nuclear’s baseload nature eliminates the need for back-up, storage, additional grid firming, or paying shaping and balancing costs.
Our PPAs last 12 to 24 years because our plants operate for 43 years; they are refuelled every six years, ending dependence on gas flows and fluctuating global prices. The strength of the technology means that, when compared on a like-for-like basis, nuclear is certainly price competitive.
