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Page added on January 2, 2012
To green or not to green? UK’s energy dilemma
f you think the UK is in a difficult position as far as its relationship goes to the rest of Europe and the ongoing euro debt drama, consider the circumstances surrounding its energy and climate policies.
It’s all enough to make Prime Minister David Cameron wish he had never pledged to usher in “the greenest government ever” when his coalition began leading in 2010.
Yes, Britain’s base of renewable energy has expanded over the past year. The government reported last week that consumption of green energy rose by 27 percent from 2008 to 2010 (although, buried in the fine print is the fact that solar, hydro and wind/wave/tidal energy actually declined under Cameron’s watch … from 5.3 terawatt-hours in 2009 to 3.6 terawatt-hours in 2010). And Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, points to plans in the coming financial year for £2.5 billion worth of investment in renewable energy projects in the UK, with the potential to create almost 12,000 jobs.
At the same time, though, the government is trying to slash incentives — in the form of feed-in tariffs — for small-scale solar energy projects such as rooftop photovoltaics, a move that late last month was declared illegal by the country’s High Court. Solar industry executives such as Solarcentury’s Jeremy Leggett have called that decision an “absurdity” that threatens to bankrupt homegrown solar companies and put 25,000 people out of work. (Cameron’s government has until this Wednesday, Jan. 4, to appeal the High Court’s finding.)
While promising to meet EU goals of generating 15 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2020, Britain has also just issued 46 new licenses to explore for oil and gas in the North Sea, with Energy Minister Charles Hendry saying he looks forward to a “prosperous” 2012 for the nation’s fossil-fuel sector.
For a country where the latest statistics show that one in four citizens is experiencing “fuel poverty,” it would seem to make sense to try and squeeze every last kilowatt of energy possible from every source, low-carbon or otherwise. But how then to explain the attempt to strangle the domestic burgeoning solar industry in its infancy? Two phrases come to mind for a nation aggressively pursuing austerity measures at the same time it’s trying to boost energy security: “penny-wise and pound-foolish” and “desperate.”
3 Comments on "To green or not to green? UK’s energy dilemma"
Kenz300 on Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 9:58 pm
Oil and coal are declining resources. It is time to transition to safe, clean alternative energy. Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future. The world produces a lot of trash every day. We can now turn that trash into biofuel, energy (methane) and raw materials for new products. We will need ALL sources of energy in the future as the the one we have relied on in the past go into decline.
BillT on Tue, 3rd Jan 2012 5:48 am
All the bio-fuels are pollution. And anytime we burn anything, it make the situation worse, not better. Methane is a loser and always will be as will the idea that hydrogen can replace oil. Hahahaha…all any of them do is use oil to make energy from something else. Often at a net loss. And none of Kenz suggestions are possible without oil, cheap, plentiful oil.
Stop denying the inevitable. We are on the downside of the Petroleum Age, and it will be painful all the way to the bottom.
DC on Tue, 3rd Jan 2012 9:04 am
Trash into energy? I dont think so. How much energy does it take to produce, distribute, break, throw away, collect again, transport all our poorly built toxic crap to the W2E plant(which itself are not only expensive as hell to build-let operate operate)? You can try to ingnore there horric consturction costs, the massive pollution they generate, but what cant ignore is the massive waste stream will go away once cheap energy does. And so does all the money and effort you just wasted building all those now-useless W2E plants that are no longer being fed a constrant stream of 1/2 eaten mcrib sandwhiches and broken plastic salad shooters (made in china).
Nope, once it becomes clear the poorly built unrepairable crap we have hand is all we got, it will too valuable(haha) to burn for low-grade net loss energy. Well have to repair it. Of couse, that too will be total waste of time but…thats that another problem isnt it…
Forgoet Bio-fools, thats a food-revolution waiting to blow up. Fuel for a shrinking elites SUVS or food for peoples childern? Guess whos gonna win that argument when push comes to shove?