Zac and Cameron talk green issues
People in the UK have a deep loathing and mistrust of nuclear power, just like incinerators, regardless of how “safe” experts say they may be, they always will.
I believe that’s why Conservatives, actively encouraged by the gold list environmentalist Zac Goldsmith, are reportedly favouring renewables in the form of decentralised energy as their alternative. The full policy will be announced in six months.
The report in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph reports how DE could offer a truly substantial reduction in UK CO2 emissions.
DE works by using a combined heat and power generator, about the size of a garden shed, which will be placed in council estates, row of shops, major factory, retail park and industrial estate.
It also means using wind turbines and solar panels and housolders who install this technology could sell their surplus electricity back to the electricity companies.
This is said to be based on a similar system in Germany and naturally has the backing of Greenpeace.
If implemented, it is obviously going to be a massive undertaking, but there is no easy quick-fix or cheap solution regarding our energy provision; the emphasis will be on the environmental impact and its likely success.
*Incidentally, I had an email from Stan O’Neil yesterday asking if anyone could remember the time when Margaret Thatcher went to a conference in the United States at which she praised Britain’s nuclear energy performance and then the very next day after she returned, she held a cabinet meeting at which she effectively cancelled any further expansion of nuclear energy in Britain.
“Not for the first time, I thought, that woman’s lost her marbles!” said Stan.
Does this ring any bells? It is for Stan’s personal info.
Elle, you can sell back renewable micro generate power to the grid at the moment – who are forced to buy it, up to a certain amount. Woking BC produces nearly the maximum amount of power it can via solar panels under this arrangement.
Personally I’m thinking about it for my home, but mostly to get a secure electricity supply. The big danger here is no clear decision will be made in time to prevent black outs in a few years time. David Cameron would do well to remember that the British voters don’t forgive governments that let the lights go out.
Glad to hear you are eco friendly in your little shed. Cameron seems to have firmly embraced the green line, let’s hope the lights don’t go out first before they can be put into operation.
Ellee,
I hope the Tories don’t come up with a woolly “It can all be done with renewables, and we don’t need nuclear” strategy.
It can’t.
We don’t have the luxury of either/or.
The only answer to our long term generation of electrical power is a fifty year strategy based on a mix of nuclear/fossil/renewables/microgeneration. The debate is about the proportions.
We must as rapidly as possible move away from gas. It’s going to be very expensive and unreliable.
Our strategy must be to develop a system with a very high proportion of the primary energy originating in the UK. We have all the necessary resources to achieve this. Even the fossil element of the mix can be from clean coal.
Tony Blair’s got it right. We need nuclear. If David Cameron says we don’t that presents me with a serious voting dilemma in 2009 !