Martina Milburn
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Alistair Darling
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Nicola Sturgeon
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Duncan Weldon
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Harry Cooper
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Betting on short-term returns doesn't bring long-term security or stability. That's one lesson we have all learned from the current economic crisis. It applies equally acutely to the debate on how the UK should generate a secure and cost-effective supply of energy. We can't afford to focus on quick fixes such as importing expensive fossil fuels from abroad. That exposes us to fluctuating global energy prices; wholesale gas prices have gone up by 40% in the last twelve months. Renewable sources, such as wind, wave and tidal energy, give us a way of escaping fossil fuel price shocks. They also offer us an unprecedented opportunity to create tens of thousands of jobs, and to become a global exporter of low-carbon energy technologies.
At present some sections of the media are arguing that we can't afford renewable energy. In fact the direct opposite is true. This week we have witnessed gas prices rocket by almost 50% as Europe suffers a cold snap. Ofgem, the independent energy regulator confirms that the fluctuating wholesale price of gas has been the driving force behind the recent increases in our energy bills. On top of this our reliance on imported fossil fuels from Russia and the Middle East raises questions about the security of supply.
I believe that it's important to have a wide range of sources in our energy portfolio to meet our needs. Renewable sources form a key part of that mix, already generating about 9% of our electricity, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The government is calling for a fivefold increase in wind energy, onshore and offshore, by 2020. Last week saw the world's largest offshore wind farm open off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, reaffirming the UK's global lead in the sector. It will generate enough power to supply 320,000 homes.
Ofgem's figures show that the current cost to UK households of developing all forms of renewable energy, including wind, is less than £20 a year. For less than 40p a week, we can develop a thriving UK-based renewable sector, including wave and tidal energy, which will provide secure, cost-effective and clean energy for generations to come.
This long-term vision will deliver tens of thousands of jobs in some of the most economically challenged areas of the country, reinvigorating the manufacturing sector and creating new export markets in countries such as China and India. It will also provide a boost to small and local businesses across the country, as the government has recently announced that it will ensure that 50% of the supply chain driving the wind energy industry would be home-grown.
We expect to have nearly 90,000 people working in the UK's wind industry and the supply chain by 2021. Multinational companies are planning to open up large factories to manufacture the next generations of offshore wind turbines. The wind industry already employs nearly 12,000 people in the UK. It will provide many more jobs for our children and grandchildren if we have the foresight to embrace the opportunity to build a low-carbon economy.
Follow Maria McCaffery on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RenewableUK
Maria McCaffery: It's Time for a Common Sense Debate About Britain's Energy Future
Wind power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Turbines and solar arrays would never make it to market without being given money as they make zero financial sense. Turbines generate no power when there is no wind and neither does solar at night. There needs to be an equivalent amount of gas fired power stations back up so they can quickly ramp up and down to fill the gaps.
The UK is now thought to have over 70 years supply of methane from fracking and methane is one of the lowest producers of CO2.
Reality Intrusion 2:
EU energy prices are drastically higher than in the rest of the world. You can say bye-bye to many EU/UK businesses that have large energy requirements.
By the way China makes both wind turbines and solar arrays and is slowly but relentlessly putting EU producers out of business as they cannot compete.
no new forms of energy production make it to market without some form of initial subsidy, and alternative sources of energy production are, in this respect, no different.
Neither wind nor solar are structured to replace conventional power generation, but they can significantly reduce the need for increasingly expensive coal, gas & eventual elimination of nuclear. They are part of the answer...
Fracking... you must be joking... you are aware of the significant dangers, aren't you, and seen the documentaries concerning methane entering water tables and water courses and domestic fawcetts..?? Raw methane is 23 times more damaging to the climate than CO2....
Reality intrusion 2 - a response
Yes, energy prices in the EU are higher, but its higher for all of us, so strangely competition continues.
And China may make these devices, but strange how Danish and German companies continue to grow in this intensely competitive marketplace?
So these countries are going to buy windmills from us, I don't think so love, I worked as a rigger at Thamesport where we offloaded these windmill blades on a daily basis, the were imported from India so that rules out any exporting of components to any country doing it cheaper so that'll leave Sweden, Japan and the USA or maybe not as they're quite good at making their own stuff.
If anyone really thinks this renewables market is going to bring fame and fortune to the UK, they, like our bankers and politicians, are living in cloud cuckoo land.
Re-open the pits, this country sits on coal, burn that for power, job done.
Stick with constant sources: tidal and geothermal and maybe there would be more support from Joe Public
Make sure you create a really transparent structure so the middlemen cannot rip the population off.
Really, I'm using a a lot less energy that I was using a few years ago. I have bought all new energy efficient electrical goods (TV,Washing machine, LED bulbs,) Had the house insulated well beyond UK guide lines and my bills are almost twice as much as before.
Lets be honest a lot of my bills increase has to do with how the UK supplements green energy by hiking the householders bills with the increase.
Currently the Uk is looking at powercuts in the no so distant future because the previous government listened to people like you and didn't build for the future and instead built windmills that are 50% efficient at the most . What we need is a more balanced power generation capability (including nuclear power) and not 100% windpower.
Wind power, together with a raft of other alternative sources of energy generation, is designed specifically to gradually replace the need for gas, coal and nuclear, which could take several decades.
Energy security is the point here; we have many years' supply of gas, coal and we have existing nuclear stations.
Our increasing dependence on energy imports will only hold us hostage to internationally priced energy for which we will either have to pay - or do without.
Nobody wants that scenario, and the increasing provision of alternative sources (wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, biogas, biomass etc) will assist in this nationally beneficial aim.