Value chain · CLM-0272
In plain terms
The UK government's 2025 cost report does not give a single number for what it would cost to make solar or wind power available around the clock; it says that working this out needs a full power-system model, which this report is not. It also does not publish specific cost figures for the UK's flagship nuclear projects, because those costs are commercially confidential.
The claim as recorded
DESNZ's Electricity Generation Costs 2025 report does not publish a system-cost-adjusted or "enhanced" LCOE that adds balancing/integration cost to intermittent renewables, and states this is out of scope of the report; it also does not publish project-specific LCOE figures for UK nuclear (Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C, or the Rolls-Royce SMR programme), citing commercial confidentiality.
Scope and limits
This is an absence-of-evidence finding, not a cost figure. Do not infer that UK system/balancing costs for intermittent renewables are zero, negligible, or unknowable in general; only that DESNZ chose not to quantify them in this report series' 2025 edition. Do not infer that no UK nuclear LCOE figure exists anywhere; only that DESNZ did not publish project-specific figures in this edition.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
p.7-8: "Wider system costs beyond those faced by the developer... cannot be assessed without whole power system modelling." p.15: "That is why full power system modelling is required to evaluate the system costs of different power sector capacity mixes." p.28: "Project-specific and confidential costs and technical assumptions were used by DESNZ analysts for both projects but cannot be made available in this report because of their commercial sensitivity."
Basis: GBP2024, REAL, N/A (this is an absence-of-evidence claim, not a cost figure)
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-021 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0272
CLM-0272, Energy Aperture, as of 2025.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-154
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