UK Politics Archives - Page 5 of 6

George Osbourne

This week in The Independent there are reports of a major split opening up in the Coalition Government between the Chancellor, George Osbourne and the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne.

The Chancellor has said that he does not want the UK to "lead the way" in its efforts to reduce carbon emissions stating that, to do so would somehow put the UK at a disadvantage within the EU. A growing faction within the Tory party seem to think that green policies will damage the "economic recovery".

In a recent speech Chris Huhne has indirectly attacked the Chancellor saying:

"We are not going to save our economy by turning our back on renewable energy."

So, is this a return to the good old Thatcherite days of tax cuts for the ultra rich while the rest of the country burns? Possibly, yes. At this stage it looks like it is down to the Lib Dems to keep things on track. Chris Huhne may not be able to save the planet, but hopefully he can prevent the Tories from destroying the UK.

Europe is floundering amid economic and political turmoil and now is the opportunity for the UK to plant the seeds of the next major economic boom - The Climate Revolution.

Just as the Industrial and more recently the Information Technology revolution did, this new era will see massive opportunities for those nations that set the right environment for businesses to evolve and thrive. Lets get this straight... paying lip service by tweaking a tax here and there will not cut it. We need green policies that go well beyond those we have now to create the environment in which large scale renewable energy rollout can happen, such as automatic permitted development rights for all small to medium scale renewable generation and a much simpler planning process for mid to large scale.

Climate Change is one of most important issues facing humanity in the next 50 years and according to the United Nations, the sooner we address it the cheaper it will be. Not only will reducing carbon emissions sooner save money in mitigating climate change, but those who do will lead the way in developing and owning the new technologies that result.

The answer is amazingly clear - rather than dump billions of pounds of tax payers money into quantitative easing (which has not and is not really working) spend it investing in green technology and fund the schemes that result in inward and foreign investment into the UK. In sorting out our own house.... we'll have developed the tools to sell others.

By way of a concrete example, Denmark was one of the first European countries to roll out government grants for wind energy. Is it any surprise that the worlds biggest wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas is Danish? In 2010 Vestas turnover was nearly €7bn.

The UK will either be on the train or run over by it. George Osbourne's paymasters will not care one way or the other, but you might.

by distgen

David Cameron on Planning Reform

Yesterday at the Conservative Party annual conference, the Prime Minister reaffirmed his support for the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) saying:

There's one more thing. Our businesses need the space to grow - literally. That's one of the reasons we're reforming our planning system. It's hard to blame local people for opposing developments when they get none of the benefits. We're changing that.

If a new manufacturing plant is built in your area - your community keeps the business rates. If new homes get built - you keep the council tax. This is a localist plan from a localist party.

Now I know people are worried about what this means for conservation. Let me tell you: I love our countryside and there's nothing I would do to put it at risk. But let's get the balance right. The proportion of land in England that is currently built up is 9 per cent. Yes, 9 per cent.

There are businesses out there desperate to expand, to hire thousands of people - but they're stuck in the mud of our planning system. Of course we're open to constructive ideas about how to get this right.

But to those who just oppose everything we're doing, my message is this: Take your arguments down to the job centre. We've got to get Britain back to work.

Let's not forget that the NPPF could be radical step forward for all industry, not just housing. The country is in the grip of an economic crisis that will be massively compounded by the effects of both climate change and energy shortages. At the same time there is currently a presumption AGAINST all wind energy schemes from micro to wind farms. THIS HAS TO CHANGE.

National Planning Policy PPS22 went a long way towards removing the obstacles put in the way of renewable energy schemes and the NPPF could help even more. We therefore welcome the Prime Ministers comments and hope the Government has the balls to push the NPPF through.

by distgen

What will the Feed In Tariff add to my bills?

There is a LOT of misinformation and finger pointing regarding the FIT. As wind turbine developers we often get two slightly contradicting arguments used against us:

Wind turbines are inefficient and do not produce much electricity
Wind turbines will cause household electricity bills to rise significantly

The FIT paid is based on the amount of electricity generated, so the more inefficient and useless wind turbines are... the less the operators get paid. Conversely, if they are very efficient and generate lots of clean electricity then the payments can be large. Thus the two complaints above seem mutually exclusive.

Yes, the FIT is a subsidy, without which the UK or any part of Europe would simply not have a renewables industry.

Why is the subsidy needed? Simple, because for decades energy has been hugely undervalued. The cost of fossil fuels was predicated on an unending, ever increasing supply and the smart money now says that world oil production probably peaked a few years ago. So, today we have an energy market that is only now just starting to price in the replacement cost of the primary resource - hint... you cant just go and plant more oil and gas and there have been no new "mega fields" discovered in the last 30 years. This is why energy price inflation is in double digits and set to continue.

Because the true cost of energy is still massively undervalued it means that the cost/kWh that you can sell electricity for is still much to low to make small/medium scale projects viable. In 10..15 years time when prices have soared it might be different. In the meantime, the transition period, subsidy is required to plug the gap. Don't be fooled into thinking nuclear is not subsidised either - if the operators had to budget for clean up costs it is unlikely that any new stations will be built.

As for how much small/medium wind projects actually add to domestic energy bills, the best estimate comes from DECC (Department for Energy and Climate Change) who predict:

Our policies would increase household electricity prices by 25% in 2015 and 30% in 2020 compared to what they would have been in the absence of policies

The contribution of individual policies to the 30% policy-driven price increase estimated for 2020 is as follows: i) A third of the total cost comes from carbon pricing policies – both HMT's carbon price floor and the carbon price derived from the EU emissions trading scheme. ii) A third comes from the Energy Company Obligation – the successor policy to CERT, to be implemented from late 2012 alongside the Green Deal, mandating energy companies to install hard-to treat energy efficiency measures and make fuel poor households more energy efficient. iii) A fifth of the total policy cost comes from Electricity Market Reform's new long-term contracts. iv) A fifth comes from price support for renewables under the Renewables Obligation. v) Around 5% of the total policy costs comes from small-scale feed-in tariffs.

So an average home using 4,000kWh annually at a current rate of 15p/kwh would expect to pay £600 per year. By 2020 this could rise to £780 of which the FIT will account for just £9.

So, using DECC's optimistic figures for the take-up on all renewable technologies (including wind, solar, biomass, geo-thermal etc) under the FITS scheme, the average household will pay just £9 extra per year by 2020.

£9 a year to help save the planet - seems like very good value for money.

by distgen

How to destroy the UK onshore wind industry

Simple... support this Private Members Bill by looney tory lord, Hugh William Mackay, 14th Lord Reay, Baron Mackay

The Wind Turbines (Minimum Distances from Residential Premises) Bill seeks to impose minimum distances between wind turbines and the nearest properties of at least 1000m for turbines over 25m up to 2000m for the largest turbines. Smaller distances could still be approved by planners if EVERY resident within the "buffer zone" gave written permission.

On the face of it you might think this is reasonable, however consider the implications.

The bill takes no account of the number of turbines. Whether its 1 or 1000 the same rules apply.
By mandating large separation zones it will force developers to look further out into unspoiled countryside and schemes will become even more controversial. Why should people living in the countryside have to host wind turbines to power towns and cities?
It will kill community schemes. We are working on a number of community projects and thanks in part to the negative propaganda put about, it is near impossible to get 100% approval for any scheme. So it would just take 1 NIMBY to thwart the aspirations of an entire village. Fair? We don't think so.

This bill will, quite simply, kill the UK onshore wind industry dead... from single turbine community schemes upwards. For many this will cause to celebrate, however if you are concerned about energy security and climate change it's a disaster waiting to happen.

The UK is legally bound to reduce carbon emissions massively by 2050, we are so behind schedule its scary. If onshore wind falters then you could argue off-shore will pick up the slack - but at THREE TIMES THE COST are you willing to see your energy bills to take the hit?

Annual energy inflation is already running at 10 - 15% with no signs of doing anything but accelerating. Nuclear is now universally unpopular, besides which... where do you build new nuclear plant if experts are predicting significant sea level rises within their operating lifetime?

by distgen

UK to halve carbon emissions by 2025

Let'c cut to the quick... Todays announcement by the Government to reduce 2025 CO2 emissions to half of those from 1990 is very good news for two reasons:

For the obvious environmental benefit.
Because the "green revolution" is gaining pace and developed economies cannot afford to miss out. The shift in policy will force investment to occur where before there was little or none.

Old world industries such as steel may complain about higher energy prices in the short term, but with annual energy inflation already in double digits just wait until oil hits $200 a barrel! Just as the print and publishing industry bemoaned competition from the internet many still see renewables as a problem rather than opportunity.

Renewable energy technology is one of the few industries that currently has the potential for massive growth. For strategic and economic reasons the UK must be fully committed to develop and manufacture its own technology. Otherwise, just as we import oil and gas today, we will be left buying in from abroad.

When imported energy is prohibitively expensive, investing in renewables and other energy saving technologies offers the "double whammy" of creating new jobs and reducing the national debt. When New Labour was pumping money into the banks... it should have been into renewables instead. It could have launched a program to install double glazing at heavily discounted rates, or free solar panels - creating thousands of proper skilled jobs and saving the country billions of pounds for decades into the future.

On a final note... why isn't a company with the expertise and resources of BAE Systems NOT developing wind turbines? Let the War on Climate Change start today by shifting budgets away from killing people to saving the planet.

Come on UK.. "Get with the program"

by distgen

Climate secretary says landscape must change

Energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne has urged countryside conservationists to accept that landscape change is inevitable in the battle against climate change

Addressing the Campaign to Protect Rural England last week, Huhne said that trade-offs will be needed between the long-term survival of landscapes and the security and affordability of electricity supplies. "Sometimes, national need will mean we have to sit down and take a tough decision about local impacts," he said.
Read more

by distgen

UK underinvestment wins again

A few months ago we wrote about forward thinking Aberdeenshire whose planning authority published a set of guidelines specifying the circumstances under which a wind turbine application would be granted- thus removing local politics and nimbyism from the equation.

That combined with a rich wind resource let to a somewhat inevitable "gold rush" of applications which in turn has led to the operators of local aviation RADAR systems to start objecting to all new proposals.

Community and commercial schemes alike are now being withdrawn or rejected pending the anticipated rollout of a new RADAR system to mitigate the "clutter" caused by wind turbines. This new Raytheon system is as yet still un-tested and assuming successful tests later this year, it could still be 5 years before anyone agrees to actually pay for the upgrades.

Contrast this with our recent visit to the island of Gran Canaria where we had a tour of the ACSA wind turbine factory. The airport is surrounded by hundreds of wind turbines right up to its perimeter fence and yet the commercial and military aircraft (yes there are F-18's parked next to the runway when you land) seem to fly around quite well without bumping into anything.

How does a relatively poor little Spanish colony island afford to do something that seems almost impossible here in the UK?

by distgen