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Page added on December 2, 2012
UK to Shift Focus from Renewable Energy to Natural Gas
The UK government has finally released its long overdue energy policy, and it seems that Chancellor George Osborne won.
The problems that were facing the coalition decision makers in regards to setting the new energy bill were three fold:
1. Sufficient power must be available to meet demand.
2. Energy bills must not increase too much.
3. Carbon Emissions cannot increase in order to stick to pre-set targets, in fact they need to fall.
Meeting all three has not been an easy task, and it is made harder by two decades of under-investment in the nation’s energy infrastructure.
To start with the three factors must be prioritised. The lights must stay on, that is obvious; and by law the carbon emissions must begin to decrease. That just leaves cost as the only option that could show a bit of give.
Unfortunately that bit of give means higher bills for consumers; by how much is currently unknown.
Chancellor George Osborne seems to have outmuscled Energy Minister Ed Davey and the focus of the energy bill will be on his ‘dash for gas’ and the hope of a shale gas revolution in the UK, which supporters assure us will cause natural gas prices to plummet.
The problem is that no one else outside of the fracking industry thinks that this is likely; a shale boom is just not on the cards for the UK.
The alternative, which will now only play a small part in our energy future as most of the money is going into the dash for gas, is for a diverse range of energy investments, into natural gas, renewable energy, and nuclear power. By choosing a dash for gas path we have started to closethe door on the wind energy sector, which could have provided relatively cheap, clean energy.
The lack of backing for renewable energy means that the UK’s green sector, despite being one of the few to actually be constantly growing during the economic troubles, will also start to fall into decline as private investors and jobs move abroad.
By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
8 Comments on "UK to Shift Focus from Renewable Energy to Natural Gas"
GregT on Sun, 2nd Dec 2012 8:08 am
“The lights must stay on, that is obvious”
Yes, the lights will remain on, as they have for millennia, when the sun is up.
csatadi on Sun, 2nd Dec 2012 2:36 pm
So that cheap wind energy sector can survive only with backings?
rollin on Sun, 2nd Dec 2012 3:00 pm
So it’s business as usual for Great Britain. They are following the American model, so sad. They are choosing a future for themselves and the world that will not be subject to meaningful government decisions.
The false accounting of carbon release must be stopped. Natural gas is not any better than coal fired systems when the whole process is examined.
Kenz300 on Sun, 2nd Dec 2012 7:46 pm
Wind, solar and wave energy are the future. Fossil fuels are the past.
Move forward.
Arthur on Sun, 2nd Dec 2012 8:21 pm
Meanwhile in Norway, scientists predict dramatic increase in temperature of 5 degrees Celcius:
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/erderwaermung-forscher-warnen-vor-5-grad-temperatur-plus-a-870282.html
Unfortunately the British seem to no longer want to ‘rule the waves’ and become the New Spain instead, temperaturewise.
Wonder who will be the first to sail over the north pole? And where can I book for my holiday to Spitsbergen? How about cruises along the Siberian coast?
Arthur on Sun, 2nd Dec 2012 8:26 pm
It will be crowded in Europe, Russia and the US with “thermo-refugees” who will argue, with some justification: “you ruined our habitat with your carbon fuel, now let us in, all 5 billion of us”. By that time gasprince Chancellor George Osborne will be no longer around to bear the reponsibility.
KingM on Sun, 2nd Dec 2012 10:13 pm
Most of the warming is supposed to be in northern latitudes. A net increase in habitable land is likely to be the result. Greenland alone is the size of Western Europe.
I’m not saying this is a good thing and it’s obviously hugely disruptive.
Curt Lampkin on Mon, 3rd Dec 2012 10:43 pm
No renewable energy source will solve anything until we develop a method to store the energy. We cannot store renewable energy. The result is that we must have a fossil fuel plant of equal capacity to the renewable source to step in when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind blow. And it must be a fossil fuel type to react quickly (such as a turbine) . Wind and solar are 5 to 10 times as expensive as fossil fuel. So when renewable get to be 10 to 20% of total capacity our electric bills will more than quadruple. England sees this now. We need energy storage badly but no one is researching it.