The boss of the energy firm SSE has warned that “there is a very real risk of the lights going out” in Britain. Ian Marchant said the government was significantly underestimating the scale of the capacity crunch facing the country. He was commenting on the company’s decision to cut back on power generation at five sites. The energy regulator, Ofgem, has also warned of an increased risk of a blackout. In February it predicted power station closures could mean a 10% fall in capacity by April alone. BBC News, 22/03/13.

“Successive governments have failed to deal with this problem, not enough has been spent on reserach into renewable forms of energy and little has been done to organise energy generation soon enough, given that this is a long term problem” says Bill Winlow.