Burning fossil fuels – gas, coal, oil and more recently shale gas – are considered the most economic ways to generate electricity.
Fossil fuel however, is a finite resource, the cost of which increases sharply as the availability decreases. They become more difficult to mine as reserves are diluted.
But while they still account for most of the electricity produced in the UK, there are major problem areas such as security of supply and environmental factors:
We rely primarily on foreign imports of coal, oil and gas – all subject to world-market forces of supply and demand. It means the cost of the electricity is tied to the price of the fuel used to produce it. And the more we import, the more control we lose over our ability to set a fair price for the electricity we consume. The trend, as we all know too well, is increasingly expensive bills. What’s more, having to rely on imports means we have less security of supply. As such, we are increasingly dependent upon good relations with other countries for supply. For example, in March 2013, the UK was six hours short of running out of gas supplies due to problems at a gas processing plant in Norway.