But it has to be spent on generation to get the charge current for the storage. Once the true costs of wind generation start to hit home we won't have any spare cash to spend. Apart from the very high routine maintenance costs of offshore wind turbines, how many realise they all have to be renewed every 20 years?
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This is classic pro nuclear lobby style facts.... and not my experience of both industries.
Renewing a wind turbine even it does need doing after 20 year, is dead easy and its components can be recycled, the land / sea returned to its exact state prior to the turbine being installed. If it is replaced it can be replaced with more modern technology. There is no huge commitment. If better technology is found, jobs a good un.
If we sign up for Hinkly we're committed to x years of expensive electricty, with zero option to just stop if a better solution is found. Its then 90 years of costly decommission, and a pretty much infinate problem of waste storage. I know some horror stories of what they've been doing at Selafield and Doonray for instance, and ironically a lot of the problems are only discovered when you start drilling into sand dunes to build off shore windfarms!
I'm afraid if I was in charge, I'd not be committing the country to unproven technology (the style of reactor isn't working anywhere yet). The next 50 years could see tonnes of exciting developments in energy use and supply, so why sign up to something so costly, and so vulnerable to the new style of war that we're seeing.
Anyone want to know what the plan is if a plan is flown at a power station? because I've seen the risk assessments..