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Posts Tagged ‘Renewable energy’

Kenya to build £533m windfarm

July 27th, 2009 | No Comments

With surging demand for power and blackouts common across the continent, Africa is looking to solar, wind and geothermal technologies to meet its energy needs

One of the hottest places in the world is set to become the site of Africa’s most ambitious venture in the battle against global warming. 

Some 365 giant wind turbines are to be installed in desert around Lake Turkana in northern Kenya – used as a backdrop for the film The Constant Gardener – creating the biggest windfarm on the continent. When complete in 2012, the £533m project will have a capacity of 300MW, a quarter of Kenya’s current installed power and one of the highest proportions of wind energy to be fed in a national grid anywhere in the world. 

Until now, only north African countries such as Morocco and Egypt have harnessed wind power for commercial purposes on any real scale on the continent. But projects are now beginning to bloom south of the Sahara as governments realise that harnessing the vast wind potential can efficiently meet a surging demand for electricity and ending blackouts. 

Already Ethiopia has commissioned a £190m, 120MW farm in Tigray region, representing 15% of the current electricity capacity, and intends to build several more. Tanzania has announced plans to generate at least 100MW of power from two projects in the central Singida region, more than 10% of the country’s current supply. In March, South Africa, whose heavy reliance on coal makes its electricity the second most greenhouse-gas intensive in the world, became the first African country to announce a feed-in tariff for wind power, whereby customers generating electricity receive a cash payment for selling that power to the grid.

Kenya is trying to lead the way. Besides the Turkana project, which is being backed by the African Development Bank, private investors have proposed establishing a second windfarm near Naivasha, the well-known tourist town. And in the Ngong hills near Nairobi, the Maasai herders and elite long-distance athletes used to braving the frigid winds along the escarpment already have towering company: six 50m turbines from the Danish company Vestas that were erected last month and will add 5.1MW to the national grid from August. Another dozen turbines will be added at the site in the next few years. 

Christopher Maende, an engineer from the state power company KenGen, which is running the Ngong farm and testing 14 other wind sites across the country, said local residents and herders were initially worried that noise from the turbines would scare the animals. 

“Now they are coming to admire the beauty of these machines,” he said. 

Kenya’s electricity is already very green by global standards. Nearly three-quarters of KenGen’s installed capacity comes from hydropower, and a further 11% from geothermal plants, which tap into the hot rocks a mile beneath the Rift Valley to release steam to power turbines. 

Currently fewer than one-in-five Kenyans has access to electricity but demand is rising quickly, particularly in rural areas and from businesses. At the same time, increasingly erratic rainfall patterns and the destruction of key water catchment areas have affected hydroelectricity output. Low water levels caused the country’s largest hydropower dam to be shut down last month. 

As a short-term measure KenGen is relying on imported fossil fuels, such as coal and diesel. But within five years the government wants to drastically reduce the reliance on hydro by adding 500MW of geothermal power and 800MW of wind energy to the grid. 

Not only are they far greener options than coal or diesel, but the country’s favourable geology and meteorology make them cheaper alternatives over time. The possibility of selling carbon credits to companies in the industrialised world is an added financial advantage. 

“Kenya’s natural fuel should come from the wind, hot underground rock and the sun, whose potential has barely even been considered,” said Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the United Nations Environment Programme. “After the initial capital costs this energy is free.” 

The Dutch consortium behind the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) project has leased 66,000 hectares of land on the eastern edge of the world’s largest permanent desert lake. The volcanic soil is scoured by hot winds that blow consistently year round through the channel between the Kenyan and Ethiopian highlands.

According to LTWP, which has an agreement to sell its electricity to the Kenya Power & Lighting Company, the average wind speed is 11metres per second, akin to “proven reserves” in the oil sector, said Carlo Van Wageningen, chairman of the company. 

“We believe that this site is one of the best in the world for wind,” he said. If the project succeeds, the company estimates that there is the potential for the farm to generate a further 2,700MW of power, some of which could be exported.

First, however, there are huge logistical obstacles to overcome. The remote site of Loiyangalani is nearly 300 miles north of Nairobi. Transporting the turbines will require several thousand truck journeys, as well as the improvement of bridges and roads along the way. Security is also an issue as the region is known bandit country, and many locals are armed with AK-47 assault rifles. 

LTWP also has to construct a 266-mile transmission line and several substations to connect the windfarm to the national grid. It has promised to provide electricity to the closest local towns, currently powered by generators. 

The greening of Africa

At the end of 2008, Africa’s installed wind power capacity was only 593MW. But that is set to change fast. Egypt has declared plans to have 7,200MW of wind electricity by 2020, meeting 12% of the country’s energy needs. Morocco has a 15% target over the same period. South Africa and Kenya have not announced such long-term goals, but with power shortages and wind potential of up to 60,000MW and 30,000MW respectively, local projects are expected to boom. With the carbon credit market proving strong incentives for investment other types of renewable energy are also set to take off. Kenya is planning to quickly expanding its geothermal capacity, and neighbouring Rift Valley countries up to Djibouti are examining their own potential. As technology improves and costs fall, solar will also enter the mix. Germany has already publicised plans to develop a €400bn solar park in the Sahara.

“Ultimately for Africa solar is the answer, although [costs mean] we may still be decades away,” said Herman Oelsner, president of the African Wind Energy Association.

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A goodbye to Jonathon Porritt

July 26th, 2009 | No Comments

Watch a bluesy tribute to the ‘sustainability ninja’


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The battle over UK’s green future

July 24th, 2009 | No Comments

Huddled around a smoking brazier early today , the fluorescent-vested union officials looked perfectly at home.

But surrounding them on the traffic island at the far end of Newport’s St Cross industrial estate, on the Isle of Wight, was a scene that looked a little different from the usual picket line. Battered army surplus boots stuck out of the handful of colourful tents, a half-drunk bottle of South African chardonnay lay on the grass, and the gazebo hastily bought from the local B&Q contained the expected tea, coffee and biscuits, but also two cartons of soya milk.

On a grass mound outside the HQ of wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems, which is set to shut down with the loss of up to 600 jobs, a new kind of industrial dispute has taken shape. About 25 workers have occupied the plant in an attempt to prevent the closure, scheduled for 31 July, supported by a unique “red and green” coalition.

This is a protest significant not just for the way in which it has seen environmental campaigners, socialist activists and trade unionists join forces, but also for the way in which members of a previously non-unionised workforce in the largely conservative island community have been mobilised in a way they never dreamed of.

Tonight, about 300 people marched from the town centre to the plant for a rally to show their support for the action. Inside, the men, who since their arrival on Monday have been sleeping shifts on office floors, take it in turns to go out on a balcony to wave at supporters or pass the time with a keyboard discovered under a desk. “People have been putting on headphones, playing prerecorded tracks and pretending to be DJs,” said Ian Terry, 23, one of the occupiers.

A game invented to kill time involves throwing and catching balls while seated on increasingly far apart office chairs in the corridor.

Since Thursday morning, Vestas’ management has been providing them with two meals a day, so far centred on cheese sandwiches but the men said they were still hungry. Tobacco has been provided by their workmates outside, who throw tennis balls stuffed with goodies.

Those that land short are scooped up using a pole of joined-together broom handles, with a sticky ball of tape attached.

Spirits are high, according to Terry. “The atmosphere is brilliant,” he said. “I think it’s amazing what people have done. We know there are different groups with different opinions on certain things but they’re all singing from the same hymn sheet and support is just snowballing.”

Outside Sean McDonagh, 32, a team leader at the plant, marvelled at the cultural shift of the last week. “For so long, management kept us down; they’ve broken us and bullied us,” he said. “To move up the ladder you had to do anything the management wanted. If you didn’t want to do that they didn’t want to know. People were too scared to stand up for themselves, because they were worried they’d lose their jobs. It’s good money, and that’s really what the management has worked on.”

All that has changed after the arrival, last month, of a handful of socialist environmental campaigners from the group Workers’ Climate Action.

By night, they camped at a farm near Cowes and by day set about hanging around the gates of Vestas’ two plants at shift-change times, handing out leaflets. Initially, they were met with scepticism, but gradually a small number of workers began to be convinced that action could make a difference.

Last week an occupation committee formed and by Monday evening the men had taken their places inside the plant.

Vestas, the world’s biggest wind turbine maker, claimed tonight that “outsiders” were involved in the occupation of the closure-threatened factory but the real blame lay with “faceless nimbys” who opposed wind schemes in Britain, leading to them having to close the factory.

The Denmark-based company, which will go to court on Wednesday seeking a possession order to stop the occupation, also said that green activists should support the switch of manufacturing from the UK to America which was its main market, explaining that having to send the blades by ship across the Atlantic raised the carbon footprint of Vestas.

Peter Kruse, a spokesman for Vestas at its head office in Copenhagen, said the company had been surprised by the occupation and would do all it could to bring it to a peaceful end. He refused to say whether the company would change its mind but said that even with some government aid it “can’t make ends meet”.

Campaigners rejected the claims that anyone other than Vestas staff were involved in the sit-in and blamed the company for changing its mind, from an expansion of the plant to closure.

But Kruse said the company could not sustain a business at Newport because of the credit crunch, a weakening of the pound and a lack of political action. Later, the Vestas man said he recognised the government was doing “a lot for us”.

Back on the traffic island, Jonathan Neale, of the Campaign Against Climate Change, said the coalition gathered there was like nothing he had ever seen in Britain.

“I grew up in the southern US and I remember when the civil rights movement started. This feels like 1960.”

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Vestas is too vital to lose

July 24th, 2009 | No Comments

The government must now put our money where its mouth was in the energy white paper and support the renewables industry

The chorus of red-green dissent over the proposed closure of Britain’s sole major wind turbine manufacturing plant perfectly indicates just how spectacularly this Labour government has failed both workers and the environment. In microcosm, the situation in the Isle of Wight demonstrates the extent to which ministers have ignored calls to promote the renewables industry – squandering opportunity after opportunity to create or protect jobs in fledgling green industries, as well as to meet the UK’s greenhouse gas reduction targets.

But it also illustrates the creative way in which the unions and the green movement are recognising that they share a common agenda based on an understanding that green politics can deliver both jobs and social justice.

After the NHS and the council, Vestas is the largest employer on the Isle of Wight. The loss of 600 jobs during a time of economic recession will have a devastating effect on the community. But it is clear to all involved that the decision to close the factory has a wider significance beyond the island’s economy, and those workers currently occupying the plant in a valiant attempt to preserve their futures.

The decision to close the plant goes to the very heart of the critical challenge of our time: the need to address the economic and energy crises in a way which also tackles climate change head-on. It brings us right back to the Green New Deal, an innovative plan to restructure the economy through a billion-pound package for investing in green jobs – in renewables and energy efficiency – to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and cut householders’ fuel bills.

In the wake of its white paper on energy, expectations were high that the government might be offering companies like Vestas a real reason to maintain UK operations and thus protect UK jobs, through a more favourable policy environment and long-term investment plans, combined with any necessary loans or guarantees. But the rhetoric on renewable energy has yet to be matched with swift and tangible policy changes to ensure, for example, that the wind turbines we will need to build for a greener and more sustainable future make use of parts created in UK factories – not by workers thousands of miles away.

We are undoubtedly entering a period of public spending cuts. And by all means, let us cut the mindless spending of the previous decade of turbo-consumerism, as well as gratuitous spending on the military, renewal of the Trident weapons system, unnecessary ID card schemes or endless road-building. But we must replace this with targeted investment in the energy efficiency and renewable energy infrastructure we so urgently need to enable us to make a swift transition to a steady-state, zero carbon economy.

Thanks to years of government neglect, the wind energy industry suffers from a significant lack of demand in the UK and Europe. In the face of weighty pressure from the powerful “dirty” energy lobby – coal, gas and nuclear – the government has lacked the courage to give clear signals to encourage sustainable and profitable investment in the fledgling green industries.

The renewable industry has also suffered the consequences of an unwieldy and inconsistent planning system. Only an urgent reform of the UK’s planning system that would put environmental sustainability at its heart can ensure that renewable energy developments can prosper. Where there are pressures for conflicting environmental benefits, such as the need to exploit renewable energy opportunities while also seeking to protect the UK’s rural landscapes, we need improved dialogue and firmer planning regulations to ensure that green spaces, green belts and biodiverse brownfield sites are protected – while at the same time providing space for the renewable energy industry to grow.

The proposed Isle of Wight closure isn’t just a huge blow for the 600 skilled British workers set to lose their jobs. It threatens any attempt the UK makes to position itself at the forefront of global technological efforts to create a greener and more sustainable future. The renewables sector – and the public at large – need something more substantial than intentions laid out in white papers. Ministers could make a positive start by proving to Vestas, and other renewable energy players, that it is seriously committed to providing security for future investment, to a major overhaul in policy and planning, and to the crucial fight against climate change.

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Vestas is too vital to lose

July 24th, 2009 | No Comments

The government must now put our money where its mouth was in the energy white paper and support the renewables industry

The chorus of red-green dissent over the proposed closure of Britain’s sole major wind turbine manufacturing plant perfectly indicates just how spectacularly this Labour government has failed both workers and the environment. In microcosm, the situation in the Isle of Wight demonstrates the extent to which ministers have ignored calls to promote the renewables industry – squandering opportunity after opportunity to create or protect jobs in fledgling green industries, as well as to meet the UK’s greenhouse gas reduction targets.

But it also illustrates the creative way in which the unions and the green movement are recognising that they share a common agenda based on an understanding that green politics can deliver both jobs and social justice.

After the NHS and the council, Vestas is the largest employer on the Isle of Wight. The loss of 600 jobs during a time of economic recession will have a devastating effect on the community. But it is clear to all involved that the decision to close the factory has a wider significance beyond the island’s economy, and those workers currently occupying the plant in a valiant attempt to preserve their futures.

The decision to close the plant goes to the very heart of the critical challenge of our time: the need to address the economic and energy crises in a way which also tackles climate change head-on. It brings us right back to the Green New Deal, an innovative plan to restructure the economy through a billion-pound package for investing in green jobs – in renewables and energy efficiency – to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and cut householders’ fuel bills.

In the wake of its white paper on energy, expectations were high that the government might be offering companies like Vestas a real reason to maintain UK operations and thus protect UK jobs, through a more favourable policy environment and long-term investment plans, combined with any necessary loans or guarantees. But the rhetoric on renewable energy has yet to be matched with swift and tangible policy changes to ensure, for example, that the wind turbines we will need to build for a greener and more sustainable future make use of parts created in UK factories – not by workers thousands of miles away.

We are undoubtedly entering a period of public spending cuts. And by all means, let us cut the mindless spending of the previous decade of turbo-consumerism, as well as gratuitous spending on the military, renewal of the Trident weapons system, unnecessary ID card schemes or endless road-building. But we must replace this with targeted investment in the energy efficiency and renewable energy infrastructure we so urgently need to enable us to make a swift transition to a steady-state, zero carbon economy.

Thanks to years of government neglect, the wind energy industry suffers from a significant lack of demand in the UK and Europe. In the face of weighty pressure from the powerful “dirty” energy lobby – coal, gas and nuclear – the government has lacked the courage to give clear signals to encourage sustainable and profitable investment in the fledgling green industries.

The renewable industry has also suffered the consequences of an unwieldy and inconsistent planning system. Only an urgent reform of the UK’s planning system that would put environmental sustainability at its heart can ensure that renewable energy developments can prosper. Where there are pressures for conflicting environmental benefits, such as the need to exploit renewable energy opportunities while also seeking to protect the UK’s rural landscapes, we need improved dialogue and firmer planning regulations to ensure that green spaces, green belts and biodiverse brownfield sites are protected – while at the same time providing space for the renewable energy industry to grow.

The proposed Isle of Wight closure isn’t just a huge blow for the 600 skilled British workers set to lose their jobs. It threatens any attempt the UK makes to position itself at the forefront of global technological efforts to create a greener and more sustainable future. The renewables sector – and the public at large – need something more substantial than intentions laid out in white papers. Ministers could make a positive start by proving to Vestas, and other renewable energy players, that it is seriously committed to providing security for future investment, to a major overhaul in policy and planning, and to the crucial fight against climate change.

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Reds and greens fight Vestas closure

July 23rd, 2009 | No Comments

A unique “red and green” army of trade union and environmental campaigners was on the march in an attempt to save from closure Britain’s only major wind turbine manufacturing plant.

Up to 500 people are expected outside the Vestas plant at Newport on the Isle of Wight tomorrow night where 25 workers are engaged in a sit-in, while further demonstrations are being planned simultaneously outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change in London.

Greenpeace said the Vestas dispute promised a historic change from a situation where the labour movement and environment activists have found themselves on different sides of the fence, with one wanting to shut down polluting industries and the other defending jobs.

“Although we have always tried to highlight the employment opportunities that could flow from a low-carbon economy, historically there has been animosity between the two sides. If we can build this new alliance and break down those perceived barriers then there all sorts of exciting opportunities,” said John Sauven, UK executive director of Greenpeace.

The RMT transport union endorsed the Vestas dispute as a springboard for closer co-operation, with its general secretary, Bob Crow – better known for addressing striking London Underground workers – visiting the wind plant today. He said: “There is an interesting coalition growing around Vestas that builds on issues where we have common cause such as public transport, which is really green transport. But this is a unique situation [on the Isle of Wight] involving globalisation, recession and the kind of low-carbon manufacturing jobs that everyone can relate to.”

The growing protests are embarrassing the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, who last week promised that thousands of new jobs would come from a new, low-carbon economy and now finds himself on the defensive over a decision by a cash-rich company to close a plant directly involved in renewable energy.

Miliband said he had been trying hard to help avoid job losses. “They [Vestas] are keeping a protoype facility at the factory and we are currently considering an application from them for government help to test and develop offshore wind blades in a facility which would employ 150 people on the Isle of Wight initially and potentially more later,” he said.

In April, Vestas announced plans to shut the manufacturing side of the Isle of Wight business with the potential loss of 600 jobs, saying it could produce blades cheaper in America.

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Reds and greens fight Vestas closure

July 23rd, 2009 | No Comments

A unique “red and green” army of trade union and environmental campaigners was on the march in an attempt to save from closure Britain’s only major wind turbine manufacturing plant.

Up to 500 people are expected outside the Vestas plant at Newport on the Isle of Wight tomorrow night where 25 workers are engaged in a sit-in, while further demonstrations are being planned simultaneously outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change in London.

Greenpeace said the Vestas dispute promised a historic change from a situation where the labour movement and environment activists have found themselves on different sides of the fence, with one wanting to shut down polluting industries and the other defending jobs.

“Although we have always tried to highlight the employment opportunities that could flow from a low-carbon economy, historically there has been animosity between the two sides. If we can build this new alliance and break down those perceived barriers then there all sorts of exciting opportunities,” said John Sauven, UK executive director of Greenpeace.

The RMT transport union endorsed the Vestas dispute as a springboard for closer co-operation, with its general secretary, Bob Crow – better known for addressing striking London Underground workers – visiting the wind plant today. He said: “There is an interesting coalition growing around Vestas that builds on issues where we have common cause such as public transport, which is really green transport. But this is a unique situation [on the Isle of Wight] involving globalisation, recession and the kind of low-carbon manufacturing jobs that everyone can relate to.”

The growing protests are embarrassing the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, who last week promised that thousands of new jobs would come from a new, low-carbon economy and now finds himself on the defensive over a decision by a cash-rich company to close a plant directly involved in renewable energy.

Miliband said he had been trying hard to help avoid job losses. “They [Vestas] are keeping a protoype facility at the factory and we are currently considering an application from them for government help to test and develop offshore wind blades in a facility which would employ 150 people on the Isle of Wight initially and potentially more later,” he said.

In April, Vestas announced plans to shut the manufacturing side of the Isle of Wight business with the potential loss of 600 jobs, saying it could produce blades cheaper in America.

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Staff occupy Isle of Wight wind turbine plant

July 21st, 2009 | No Comments

Workers staged an occupation of one of Britain’s only wind turbine factories last night to protest against the imminent closure of the plant and the loss of hundreds of jobs.

About 25 workers entered the administration block of the Vestas Wind Systems factory in Newport, Isle of Wight, at around 7.30pm and vowed to remain there until the government discusses their proposal to save it from closure by nationalising the plant.

In April the Danish firm announced that the factory, which employs 525 people, as well as another in Southampton, employing 100 people, would close because of a lack of demand.

Vestas, which is the world’s biggest wind energy group and recently reported a quarterly sales rise of 59%, up to €1.1bn (£0.95bn), cited a slowdown in demand when it announced the closure of the factory. It blamed a number of factors including the weakness of the pound and “a lack of political initiatives”.

Vestas chief executive Ditlev Engel said that building wind turbines in Britain was “extremely time-consuming and extremely complicated”. He added: “In the UK nimbyism is a huge challenge.”

A worker inside the factory, who gave his name only as Michael, hit out at what he claimed were double standards in the government’s approach to low-carbon industries.

He said: “It’s crazy for Ed Miliband [the environment secretary] to be making statement after statement about green energy and green jobs and at the same time this factory is being closed.”

“It would be tiny step financially to keep this factory open, but it would be a huge statement about the government’s commitment to the green economy. Just as they could not afford to let the banks fail, they can’t afford to let this fail. It’s about the history of humanity.”

Several police officers gathered outside the factory last night but told the protesters they do not intend to force them out. “This is a peaceful protest,” Michael said. “We got enough supplies to last a while … as long as you like crisps.”

A spokesman for the Campaign Against Climate Change pressure group said: “We give the workers our full support. The government should take over the plant and restart production and if there currently is not enough demand for wind turbines, then it should build more wind farms itself.”

No one from Vestas management was available for comment last night.

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Green light given for four ecotowns

July 16th, 2009 | No Comments

Towns to tackle Britain’s housing shortage while minimising damage to the environment by showcasing energy efficient homes and green transport

The government today gave the go-ahead for the construction of four eco-towns, offering 10,000 homes overall, which, it hopes, will showcase environmentally friendly living in the UK.

The settlements, to be built by 2016, will include the latest in energy efficiency measures, streets with charging points for electric cars and numerous cycle routes as well as easy access to public transport.

The locations are Whitehill Borden in Hampshire, the China Clay Community at St Austell, Cornwall, Rackheath in Norfolk and north-west Bicester, in Oxfordshire. Each site will be allocated a share of £60m for their “green” infrastructure.

The towns are designed to tackle Britain’s housing shortage while minimising damage to the environment – more than a quarter of the UK’s CO2 emissions come from energy use in houses.

Launching the initiative Gordon Brown said earlier today: “Eco-towns will help to relieve the shortage of affordable homes to rent and buy, and minimise the effects of climate change on a major scale. They will provide modern homes with lower energy bills, energy efficient offices and brand-new schools, community centres and services.”

But eco-towns have been criticised ever since Brown announced his plan to build up to 100,000 homes in five green towns, soon after succeeding Tony Blair as prime minister in 2007.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England wanted the government to scale back the programme to one or two showcase towns, arguing that officials should concentrate on refurbishing existing properties and redeveloping derelict brownfield sites as well as bring 800,000 empty homes in England back to use.

The eco-towns will still require planning permission and could face opposition from residents anxious about the impact on rural areas.

The housing minister John Healey said: “I recognise that the proposals can raise strong opinions, but climate change threatens us all and with our commitment to the eco-towns we are taking steps to meet this challenge and help build more affordable housing.”

He said Britain was leading the world in designing zero-carbon buildings. “One in three of Britain’s homes in 2050 will be built between now and then, so we have to set clear, green, standards for the future. I am confirming that all new homes from 2016 will have to meet a tough zero-carbon standard, so they are cleaner, greener and cheaper to run.”

In addition to the four eco-towns, a further two, Rossington, in South Yorkshire and North-East Elsenham, Essex, are on the cards for the scheme’s second wave. The government wants up to 10 eco-towns completed or under way by 2020.

Friends of the Earth’s executive director, Andy Atkins, welcomed the plans. But he said: “The bigger challenge is to ensure that all new housing is built to the highest environmental standards. Ministers must ensure that all the two million homes that they plan to build across the country are truly green and help meet UK targets for tackling climate change.”

Grant Shapps, the Tories’ housing spokesperson and MP for Welwyn Hatfield, dismissed eco-towns as a gimmick. “Underneath the thick layers of greenwash many of these schemes are unsustainable, unviable and unpopular, but Gordon Brown wants to impose them from Whitehall irrespective of local opinion.”

John Alker, of the UK Green Building Council, said that although eco-towns had had a rough ride, the idea behind them was sound. “The current economic climate is very challenging for new house building in the short-term, but zero carbon homes, sustainable transport, a robust local economy and access to green space are all vital ingredients of new places fit for the 21st century.

He added: “The eco-towns brand has taken a battering, but if these developments go through the interrogation of a proper planning process, are linked to existing communities, have local support and are built to the very highest environmental standards, then it can only be a good thing. Building green homes on a large scale … will also reduce the green cost premium and help provide a blueprint for the homes of the future.”

Inside an eco town…

• Community-scale heat sources, possibly using combined heat and power plants
• Charging points for electric cars
• All homes within 10 minutes walk of frequent public transport and everyday services
• Parks, playgrounds and gardens to make up 40% of towns
• Individual homes must achieve 70% carbon savings above current building regulations in terms of heating, hot water and lighting
• Zero-carbon buildings including shops, restaurants and schools
• Ensuring a minimum of one job per house can be reached by walking, cycling or public transport to reduce dependence on the car
• Car journeys to make up less than half of all journeys
• Locating homes within ten minutes walk of frequent public transport and everyday neighbourhood services
• Homes fitted with smart meters and solar and wind generation. Residents will be able to control the heat and ventilation of their homes at the touch of a button and sell their surplus energy into the grid

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Turn green words into green deeds

July 16th, 2009 | No Comments

Despite government talk, transport emissions are rising because carbon-generating schemes are being given the go-ahead

Two key transport announcements were made yesterday. The UK government launched a Carbon Reduction Strategy for transport which set out a vision with little action on the ground. Far less noted was the launch of a National Transport Plan for Wales, cancelling an extension of the M4 planned for south-east Wales. A saving of a cool £1bn, with plans to invest instead in improvements to the existing road, together with sustainable travel initiatives.

The decision to cancel the M4 in south-east Wales can be seen as a watershed. As the first cancellation of a motorway extension in recent times, a low-carbon transport strategy is being led not from Whitehall but from Cardiff.

Clearly, the UK government recognises the need to promote low-carbon transport, and its proposals to integrate transport modes, promote walking and cycling and reduce the need to travel are welcome. But here’s the rub: transport emissions are increasing because, on the ground, schemes that generate carbon are being given the go-ahead. This is true at a national level through approval of Heathrow’s third runway, as well as at regional and local levels.

The government’s own assessment found that helping people to find alternatives to car use is one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways of reducing emissions from transport. Sustrans’ TravelSmart programme provides tailored travel advice direct to households and has reduced car use by more than 10% in the towns and cities where it has operated. Further city pilots and work with local authorities are welcome, but government has missed an opportunity to invest in a national Smarter Choices programme as a way of promoting change through better information. If the government invested the £250m earmarked for electric cars in Sustrans’ TravelSmart, it could reach about 10m households across the country and achieve reductions in car trips of about 10%, together with significant increases in levels of walking, cycling and public transport use.

The decision from the Welsh assembly has set the bar very high for the first litmus test of the low-carbon transport strategy. Today the UK government will announce decisions on English regional funding for transport. With the majority of English regions having prioritised road schemes it rests with the government to put its low-carbon transport strategy into action and ensure that we are indeed travelling towards a low-carbon future.

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Miliband takes the greener path

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

A new low-carbon road map sets the government on the right track on emissions reduction – now we should all do our bit

For the last two years the “transition movement” has been a grassroots effort by thousands of ordinary people determined to begin the transformation towards a low-carbon lifestyle. Today it became government policy. Not for nothing is Ed Miliband’s green road map called the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan. No longer are towns and villages like Transition Lewes – or my own community effort, Low Carbon Wolvercote – on their own. Their demand – to be part of the low-carbon solution, rather than the problem – has been adopted wholesale by government.

Since the Climate Change Act was passed last year, the UK has theoretically been committed to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. But that act was only half the battle won: the government still seemed to lack a strategic plan to actually meet the targets. Indeed, many government policies – on building roads, expanding airports and so on – seemed to take us in the wrong direction.

Miliband’s white paper changes all that: the emissions reductions from each sector of the economy are quantified, and the policies to make them a reality spelt out. The paper sets out, for example, how each government department will be expected to stay within its carbon budget, outlines plans for a five-fold expansion of renewable electricity generation by 2020, increases the commitment to a new generation of nuclear power stations and brings forward measures to speed up the introduction of electric cars. There are three carbon budgets now in planning, each covering a five-year period, and running up until 2022, by which time emissions should have been reduced by a third from 1990 levels.

The plan isn’t perfect, but it should give a new dynamism to the UK’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – something that has been sorely lacking until now. As if to illustrate the new sense of urgency, the Department for Energy and Climate Change has pledged to reduce its own emissions by a remarkable 10% by the end of 2010. The budgets are important in particular because they are legally binding: indeed, the UK is the first country in the world to enshrine its carbon targets in law.

There are plenty of areas of controversy. Wind power remains controversial, and a massive expansion of onshore wind can be expected to meet with major opposition – not least from Tories in the shires. Plans for a Severn Barrage are also being narrowed down, much to the concern of conservationists worried about the local ecological impacts. Nuclear is a perennially thorny issue. But all these areas will benefit from a streamlining of the planning system, which aims to speed up new-build projects of national significance.

Another plus point is that the government plans to eschew carbon offsets from abroad, making all the cuts domestically – at least in the first five years. (This doesn’t include big corporate emitters, which can already buy and sell credits within Europe via the EU emissions trading scheme.) The plan also has a strong emphasis on one of the less sexy areas of emissions reduction: from the farming sector, where fertiliser use, land management and livestock add up to 7% of our national emissions.

Now it’s over to us. The original Transition movement provided a DIY action plan for how we could all – as individuals, communities and regions – do our fair share while the government dawdled. Now the government has weighed in with a sensible national strategy, there can be no excuses about “waiting for the politicians to act”. We are all responsible for reducing the threat our lifestyles pose to life on Earth – and we have to start now.

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Miliband unveils low-carbon strategy

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

The low-carbon transition plan covers all sectors, from home insulation and generating power, to electric cars and high-speed trains

The government has unveiled detailed plans for transforming the UK to a low-carbon economy and meeting its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The measures, which touch on all aspects of life, from home insulation and power generation to electric cars and high-speed trains, are designed to achieve emissions cuts of 34% by 2020 compared with 1990 levels.

Under the plans, which are projected to create 1.2m “green jobs”, every government department will be required to meet a carbon budget alongside its financial budget. The announcement is the first time the government has laid out in detail where the carbon axe will fall and how much each department will be expected to cut.

Miliband warned, however, that domestic energy prices would rise in 2020 to pay for some of the required changes. He hoped this would be offset with energy efficiency savings in 7m homes and financial help for the poorest consumers.

“The proposals published today are the first time we have set out a comprehensive plan for carbon across every sector – energy, homes, transport, agriculture and business,” said Miliband. “Our transition plan is a route map to 2020. It strengthens our energy security, it seeks to be fair in the decisions we make, above all it rises to the moral challenge of climate change.”

In the government’s white paper on energy and climate, called the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan and published today, half of the proposed carbon cuts to 2020 would come from changes to the power sector, 15% from making homes more efficient, 10% from workplace improvements, 20% from changing how we travel and 5% from agriculture and land use.

This means that 40% of UK electricity by 2020 will come from low-carbon sources including renewables, nuclear and clean coal. The white paper also launches consultation on the details of the government’s feed-in tariff, re-named the “clean energy cash-back” scheme, which will pay people and businesses a premium for generating low-carbon electricity. A similar scheme for renewable heat will follow in April 2011.

The white paper details plans for a “pay as you save” scheme for homeowners to receive loans to insulate their homes, with money repaid by savings in energy costs.

Philip Sellwood, chief executive of the Energy Saving Trust welcomed the scheme. “People tell us that the biggest barrier that stops them from making their homes more energy efficient is the need to find money to pay for the up-front costs. Our research shows that householders are more likely to make larger investments, including micro-generation and solid-wall insulation, if the costs can be spread through the savings they make on their energy bills.”

Other measures in the white paper and the industrial and transport strategies, also published today, include:

• Up to £6m to start development of a “smart grid”, including a policy road map next year.

• Launch of the new Office for Renewable Energy Deployment in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to speed up the growth of renewables in the UK.

• DECC to take direct responsibility from Ofgem for establishing a new grid access regime within 12 months.

• Up to £180m would be made available to promote wind and tidal power – this includes setting up a low-carbon economic area in the south-west to promote marine technologies and money for up to 3,000 wind turbines off the UK’s shores by 2020.

• £15m to establish a Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre that will develop the next generation of nuclear power infrastructure.

• £10 million will go to improving infrastructure for charging electric vehicles.

• Challenging 15 villages, towns or cities to be test-beds for piloting future green initiatives.

The shadow energy secretary Greg Clark welcomed the white paper, which he said was familiar since much of it borrowed from Conservative policy. “Over 12 years we have had 15 energy ministers, but no energy policy. Does [Miliband] recognise that while other countries have spent the last decade diversifying their supplies of energy, Britain has become even more dependent on imported fossil fuels – threatening our energy security, our economic competitiveness, and our climate change objectives?”

He added: “The secretary of state stands in a position of great moment. He must decide whether he breaks with the past and implements rigorously the measures that both he and I know are needed, or whether the next six months will prove, like the last 12 years, to have been a time of opportunity lost.”

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, said: “If this plan becomes a reality, it will create hundreds of thousands of green jobs and make Britain a safer and more prosperous country. This will be good for the British economy and, in the long-run, save householders money as we reduce our dependence on foreign oil and gas. Ed Miliband appears to be winning important battles in Whitehall. But it’s crucial that these plans now get full cross-party support and more backing from the chancellor. The renewable energy industry is too important to become a political football and this strategy for green jobs deserves more than the current paltry sums being offered by the Treasury.”

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Miliband outlines climate policies

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Forty per cent of electricity will come from low carbon sources of renewables, nuclear and clean coal by the end of the next decade, says energy secretary

Tackling climate change will require “comprehensive changes” in the UK’s economy and society, energy secretary Ed Miliband said today as he unveiled plans to slash emissions from power, transport, agriculture and industry.

Laying out how the UK would meet its legally binding targets to cut emissions by 34% by 2020, he said 40% of electricity would come from low carbon sources including renewables, nuclear and clean coal by the end of the next decade.

Ministers were today publishing measures on how they propose to shift the UK to a low carbon economy, including a green transport strategy, energy efficiency measures and attempts to boost the number of environmental industry jobs.

Miliband told MPs that seven million homes would be given pay-as-you-save energy makeovers, with grants which would paid back through savings in energy bills.

And 1.5m households would be supported to produce their own clean energy through a “feed-in tariffs” system which will pay them for the electricity they generate, he said.

Ministers will also set out measures on low-carbon transport and for ensuring that the UK benefits from thousands of potential “green jobs” as they publish the UK low carbon transition plan white paper.

But the government has come under fire for the impact of increasing renewables in the energy mix could have on people’s fuel bills in the future.

The UK has committed to the world’s first legally binding “carbon budgets”, which require a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 34% by 2020 and at least 80% by 2050, and a EU target of meeting 15% of all energy needs from renewables by 2020.

Measures to meet the goals will cover a wide range of sectors including power, transport, homes, workplaces and agriculture.

Among the schemes to reduce climate emissions to be launched today will be a “pay as you save” programme for homeowners to receive loans to insulate their homes, with the money repaid from savings on energy bills.

And people who install small-scale renewables such as solar panels or wind turbines will be paid, through a “feed-in tariffs” programme, for the electricity they generate.

There are also plans to increase large-scale renewable energy and in particular wind — with proposals for some 4,000 new onshore turbines and a further 3,000 offshore.

The government’s consultation on renewable energy last year estimated meeting targets to increase green power could lead to a rise in fuel bills of almost £230 a year by the end of the next decade.

But officials say revised estimates will show the costs of a switch to green energy will be lower than that.

Ahead of the publication of a renewable energy strategy launched alongside the white paper today, the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, warned there would be “upward pressures” on prices whatever the energy mix.

Miliband said today’s document set out a “route map” towards achieving the 2020 targets for CO2 cuts, which he said could generate 400,000 new “green” jobs by 2015.

He acknowledged that low-carbon energy would be more expensive for consumers, but pointed out that high-carbon fuels like coal and gas could also be expected to get more expensive because of increased demand from China and India.

He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “What we are trying to do is to set out not simply targets for 2020 – which have been set – but a route map to get there: How we are going to take the carbon dioxide out of the way we travel, our homes and the way we provide energy.”

Continuing on the high-carbon route would force the UK to import more fossil fuels, leaving the country exposed to oil price fluctuations and conflict elsewhere in the world, while there would also be costs in shifting to a low-carbon energy mix, he said.

The Tories accused ministers of failing to address the looming energy crunch over the past 12 years, leading to a “vacuum where there should have been an energy policy”.

Householders faced rising bills as the UK became increasingly reliant on costly imported gas, because it had one of the lowest renewable sectors in Europe and some of the least energy efficient buildings, shadow energy secretary Greg Clark warned.

“The scramble to catch up with the rest of Europe will now be more costly than if action to reduce reliance on oil and gas had been taken in a planned way over the last ten years,” he said.

Environmentalists remain concerned about the ambition of the white paper, which lays out how the UK will meet the targets for emissions cuts recommended by the Committe on Climate Change and made legally binding by the Climate Change Act.

While the committee, set up to advise ministers on cutting emissions, recommended almost entirely de-carbonising the electricity sector by 2030, green campaigners fear the government will not go nearly as far as that.

Alongside renewables, new nuclear build and new coal fired power stations – as long as a proportion of any new plant is fitted with technology to capture and permanently store carbon emissions – will form part of the energy mix in the future.

Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said: “The government must prioritise renewable energy and energy efficiency over everything else in the sector. If they do this, Britain could lead the fight against climate change, whilst providing hundreds of thousands of jobs. Anything less would be a failure.

Other environmental campaigners said they were concerned that sufficient cuts would not be made in the UK, but “offset” by paying for reductions abroad.

One of the most controversial elements of plans to boost renewables in the UK are proposals for large-scale projects to harness the tidal power of the Severn estuary.

The government is expected to confirm a shortlist of five schemes for the Severn today, including proposals for multi-billion pound 10-mile barrage across the estuary.

As part of today’s announcement the government will also be publishing a transport carbon-reduction strategy.

The government has already announced several initiatives, including moves to make electric cars more affordable by providing help worth £2,000 to £5,000 towards buying the first electric and plug in hybrid cars when they hit the showrooms from 2011.

Last month the government announced eight new low-carbon vehicle projects were being launched with some of the schemes involving members of the public being invited to test out electric cars.

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Great ideas aren’t enough

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Clean technology entrepreneurs need help to make their low-carbon brainwaves succeed commercially

The UK has a great track record in innovation. A quick look through the history books reveals an illustrious history of invention, from the telephone and the jet engine through to genetic fingerprinting and the internet.

When it comes to tackling climate change, the diversity of the ideas in this week’s Manchester Report shows there is certainly no lack of British ambition or creative thinking. With suggestions such as cheap biomass cooking stoves to harvesting the oceans for energy, many readers might have been wondering why these ideas aren’t already widely deployed. Particularly given their potential to deliver such great rewards for the planet, entrepreneurs, investors and the economy as a whole.

Sadly, the truth is that great ideas alone are not enough to transform the way we generate energy or the carbon-intensive industries that underpin modern living. Serious blood, sweat and tears are needed to ensure that ideas become commercial reality. Investors speak of the journey from “lab to listing”, and finding the right path on this journey is essential if low-carbon entrepreneurs want to see their ideas succeed.

The bottom line, of course, is that the technology needs to work. And this means both in the lab and in the world outside. Having tested the initial concept, the much bigger challenge is then to prove that the technology can be scaled up and replicated on a much larger, commercial scale.

Solar energy from photovoltaic cells is a case in point. The technical potential of generating electricity from the sun’s rays is well-recognised. Making the technology cost-effective when deployed at scale, however, is an issue that must be overcome. To make this a reality, it is vital that we develop advanced photovoltaic technology that can be manufactured at large scale and low cost. That is why the Carbon Trust is currently running a major R & D project to make this vision a commercial reality.

And this gets to the crux of the matter, because development of the technology is only half the battle when it comes to its success. The clean tech sector, like any other, is governed by the basic market principles of supply and demand. There needs to be an appetite for the product and it must be possible to deliver it on the scale required, at the quality required and at an acceptable price.

For this reason, the innovators behind any great low-carbon idea must build a thorough understanding of the market from the outset. Understanding who the key players are and establishing relationships with them is essential – both to build credibility and to understand the needs and wants of the organisations that may well be the customers of the future. Innovators also have to show they understand their final customers, and what they want. This requires a focus on moving them from a state of indifference (we know you exist, but… ) through curiosity, and on to where they have a genuine desire to purchase your product.

We have seen this sort of transition with fuel cells. Over the past five years, UK fuel cell companies have moved from small research-focused organisations to companies with listings on the Alternative Investment Market, partnering with household-name utilities and maintaining order books worth tens of millions of pounds.

Finally, the ability to build a capable and financially stable company as the organisation grows is a key factor in determining whether a technology lives or dies in the real world. The reality is that the best inventors aren’t always the best business leaders, so pulling in the right skills from a commercial and production perspective and attracting significant, private, external funds to fuel growth, is key.

Not all clean tech brainwaves will see the light of day but, with the UK on the cusp of a clean tech revolution which could generate fantastic economic opportunity, it is imperative that we speed up the process of commercialising new ideas. As the Manchester Report demonstrates, there is a wealth of innovative thinking ripe for the picking. The key will be to provide flexible but targeted support for these companies, to help them navigate the innovation journey. They can then emerge from the lab and grow into successful commercial businesses that will sit at the heart of the low-carbon economy.

• Garry Staunton is Technology Director at The Carbon Trust

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Technology alone can’t fix climate

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

The environmental and social crisis that threatens us requires deeper solutions than new technology alone can provide

Technology is part of the solution to climate change. But only part. Techno-fixes like some of those in the Guardian’s Manchester Report simply cannot deliver the carbon cuts science demands of us without being accompanied by drastic reductions in our consumption. That means radical economic and social transformation. Merely swapping technologies fails to address the root causes of climate change.

We need to choose the solutions that are the cheapest, the swiftest, the most effective and least likely to incur dire side effects. On all counts, there’s a simple answer – stop burning the stuff in the first place. Consume less.

There is a certain level of resources we need to survive, and beyond that there is a level we need in order to have lives that are comfortable and meaningful. It is far below what we presently consume. Americans consume twice as much oil as Europeans. Are they twice as happy? Are Europeans half as free?

Economic growth itself is not a measure of human well-being, it only measures things with an assessed monetary value. It values wants at the same level as needs and, while it purports to bring prosperity to the masses, its tendency to concentrate profit in fewer and fewer hands leaves billions without the necessities of a decent life.

Techno-fixation masks the incompatibility of solving climate change with unlimited economic growth. Even if energy consumption can be reduced for an activity, ongoing economic growth eats up the improvement and overall energy consumption still rises. We continue destructive consumption in the expectation that new miracle technologies will come and save us.

The hope of a future techno-fix feeds into the pass-it-forward, do-nothing-now culture typified by targets for 2050. Tough targets for 2050 are not tough at all, they are a decoy. Where are the techno-fix plans for the peak in global emissions by 2015 that the IPCC says we need?

Even within the limited sphere of technology, we have to separate the solutions from the primacy of profit. We need to choose what’s the most effective, not the most lucrative. Investors will want the maximum return for their money, and so the benefits of any climate technologies will, in all likelihood, be sold as carbon credits to the polluter industries and nations. It would not be done in tandem with emissions cuts but instead of them, making it not a tool of mitigation but of exacerbation.

Climate change is not the only crisis currently facing humanity. Peak oil is likely to become a major issue within the coming decade. Competition for land and water, soil fertility depletion and collapse of fisheries are already posing increasing problems for food supply and survival in many parts of the world.

Technological solutions to climate change fail to address most of these issues. Yet even without climate change, this systemic environmental and social crisis threatens society, and requires deeper solutions than new technology alone can provide. Around a fifth of emissions come from deforestation, more than for all transport emissions combined. There is no technological fix for that. We simply need to consume less of the forest, that is to say, less meat, less agrofuel and less wood.

Our level of consumption is inequitable. Making it universal is simply impossible. The scientist Jared Diamond calculates that if the whole world were to have our level of consumption, it would be the equivalent of having 72 billion people on earth.

With ravenous economic growth still prized as the main objective of society by all political leaders the world over, that 72 billion would be just the beginning. At 3% annual growth, 25 years later it would be the equivalent of 150 billion people. A century later it would be over a trillion. Something’s got to give. And indeed, it already is. It’s time for us to call it a crisis and respond with the proportionate radical action that is needed.

We need profound change – not only government measures and targets but financial systems, the operation of corporations, and people’s own expectations of progress and success. Building a new economic democracy based on meeting human needs equitably and sustainably is at least as big a challenge as climate change itself, but if human society is to succeed the two are inseparable.

Instead of asking how to continue to grow the economy while attempting to cut carbon, we should be asking why economic growth is seen as more important than survival.

• Merrick Godhaven is an environmental writer and activist. He co-authored the Corporate Watch report Technofixes: A Critical Guide to Climate Change Technologies.

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Miliband to launch renewables drive

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Ed Miliband will today announce low carbon transition plan to meet CO2 targets while admitting that fuel bills may rise

The government will today outline plans for a major expansion in renewable energy as part of the strategy to slash the UK’s carbon emissions in the coming decade.

Ministers will also set out measures on low-carbon transport and for ensuring that the UK benefits from thousands of potential “green jobs” as they publish the UK low carbon transition plan white paper.

But the government has come under fire for the impact of increasing renewables in the energy mix could have on people’s fuel bills in the future.

The UK has committed to the world’s first legally binding “carbon budgets”, which require a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 34% by 2020 and at least 80% by 2050, and a EU target of meeting 15% of all energy needs from renewables by 2020.

Measures to meet the goals will cover a wide range of sectors including power, transport, homes, workplaces and agriculture.

Among the schemes to reduce climate emissions to be launched today will be a “pay as you save” programme for homeowners to receive loans to insulate their homes, with the money repaid from savings on energy bills.

And people who install small-scale renewables such as solar panels or wind turbines will be paid, through a “feed-in tariffs” programme, for the electricity they generate.

There are also plans to increase large-scale renewable energy and in particular wind — with proposals for some 4,000 new onshore turbines and a further 3,000 offshore.

The government’s consultation on renewable energy last year estimated meeting targets to increase green power could lead to a rise in fuel bills of almost £230 a year by the end of the next decade.

But officials say revised estimates will show the costs of a switch to green energy will be lower than that.

Ahead of the publication of a renewable energy strategy launched alongside the white paper today, the energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, warned there would be “upward pressures” on prices whatever the energy mix.

Miliband said today’s document set out a “route map” towards achieving the 2020 targets for CO2 cuts, which he said could generate 400,000 new “green” jobs by 2015.

He acknowledged that low-carbon energy would be more expensive for consumers, but pointed out that high-carbon fuels like coal and gas could also be expected to get more expensive because of increased demand from China and India.

He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “What we are trying to do is to set out not simply targets for 2020 – which have been set – but a route map to get there: How we are going to take the carbon dioxide out of the way we travel, our homes and the way we provide energy.”

Continuing on the high-carbon route would force the UK to import more fossil fuels, leaving the country exposed to oil price fluctuations and conflict elsewhere in the world, while there would also be costs in shifting to a low-carbon energy mix, he said.

The Tories accused ministers of failing to address the looming energy crunch over the past 12 years, leading to a “vacuum where there should have been an energy policy”.

Householders faced rising bills as the UK became increasingly reliant on costly imported gas, because it had one of the lowest renewable sectors in Europe and some of the least energy efficient buildings, shadow energy secretary Greg Clark warned.

“The scramble to catch up with the rest of Europe will now be more costly than if action to reduce reliance on oil and gas had been taken in a planned way over the last ten years,” he said.

Environmentalists remain concerned about the ambition of the white paper, which lays out how the UK will meet the targets for emissions cuts recommended by the Committe on Climate Change and made legally binding by the Climate Change Act.

While the committee, set up to advise ministers on cutting emissions, recommended almost entirely de-carbonising the electricity sector by 2030, green campaigners fear the government will not go nearly as far as that.

Alongside renewables, new nuclear build and new coal fired power stations – as long as a proportion of any new plant is fitted with technology to capture and permanently store carbon emissions – will form part of the energy mix in the future.

Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said: “The government must prioritise renewable energy and energy efficiency over everything else in the sector. If they do this, Britain could lead the fight against climate change, whilst providing hundreds of thousands of jobs. Anything less would be a failure.

Other environmental campaigners said they were concerned that sufficient cuts would not be made in the UK, but “offset” by paying for reductions abroad.

One of the most controversial elements of plans to boost renewables in the UK are proposals for large-scale projects to harness the tidal power of the Severn estuary.

The government is expected to confirm a shortlist of five schemes for the Severn today, including proposals for multi-billion pound 10-mile barrage across the estuary.

As part of today’s announcement the government will also be publishing a transport carbon-reduction strategy.

The government has already announced several initiatives, including moves to make electric cars more affordable by providing help worth £2,000 to £5,000 towards buying the first electric and plug in hybrid cars when they hit the showrooms from 2011.

Last month the government announced eight new low-carbon vehicle projects were being launched with some of the schemes involving members of the public being invited to test out electric cars.

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CBI call for nuclear power stations

July 13th, 2009 | No Comments

• John Cridland, business group’s deputy director general, urges ‘balance of wind, nuclear, gas and clean coal’
• Greenpeace makes case for investment in renewables to ‘create much-needed British jobs’

The CBI has thrown its weight behind the nuclear industry’s calls for government to scale back “overambitious” wind power targets and boost the role of atomic energy and coal.

The “voice of business” believes energy prices will have to rise 30% in real terms by 2020 and some kind of financial incentives might be needed so that up to 15 new nuclear plants are constructed, capable of providing 34% of UK electricity by 2030.

John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI, denied business leaders had become “anti-renewables” or have been captured by a nuclear lobby, which so far has talked about building six or eight new plants. “We are not obsessed with nuclear. We have a passion for low carbon,” said Cridland. But he warned that government targets of generating 32% of electricity from wind were unachievable and should be scaled back to at least 25%.

“While we have generous subsidies for wind power, we urgently need the national planning statements needed to build new nuclear plants. If we carry on like this we will end up putting too many of our energy eggs in one basket. But by moving government policy in a different direction we can achieve a good balance of wind, nuclear, gas and clean coal,” he added.

The comments came alongside launch of a report, Decision Time, which warns that failure to take a more balanced approach will leave the country dangerously dependent on imported gas.

The CBI’s advice comes just days before the government is scheduled to unveil an energy white paper, a renewable energy strategy and a low-carbon industrial strategy.

Ironically, the business group’s arguments were given more weight by the renewables industry itself. A report out tomorrow from the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) accepts that only half of the onshore targets for England promised by local areas under “regional spatial strategies” have been met.

The CBI stance will alarm large swaths of the environmental movement, which will note that references to the possible need for a floor price for carbon, and others about wind “crowding out” investment in atomic power, follow similar statements from EDF Energy and E.ON, the foreign-owned utilities that want to construct new reactors in Britain.

Vincent de Rivaz, the chief executive of EDF in Britain, and Paul Golby, the boss of E.ON UK, were both quick to welcome the CBI report, which was drawn up with McKinsey, the management consultant.

“We are pleased that the CBI chose to tackle the issue of how to encourage low-carbon generation,” said de Rivaz. “Action is required now in order to maximise our ability to hit our low-carbon targets in the most affordable way for UK consumers.”

The CBI report calls for the 2020 renewables target to be reduced to 25% but coal, either in its existing shape or “cleaned” by carbon capture and storage, should see its share of the total electricity generation portfolio raised to 16%. The CBI also wants energy efficiency targets to be almost doubled to 20%.

Cridland said the CBI had been in close dialogue with ministers and he was confident some of its measures would be represented in the white paper. But he accepted it would be politically tough to dilute the wind target and boost nuclear – which supplies less than 20% of UK electricity – without protests from green groups.

The BWEA said the results of its progress report on England’s regional renewable targets were worrying: “There is a divergence between government renewable energy and climate change planning policy and what is actually happening on the ground.”

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “The CBI claims to represent the interests of British industry but it’s actually doing its members a great disservice. Investment in renewables would create much-needed British jobs in one of the few growth sectors in the global economy.”

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CBI call for nuclear power stations

July 13th, 2009 | No Comments

• John Cridland, business group’s deputy director general, urges ‘balance of wind, nuclear, gas and clean coal’
• Greenpeace makes case for investment in renewables to ‘create much-needed British jobs’

The CBI has thrown its weight behind the nuclear industry’s calls for government to scale back “overambitious” wind power targets and boost the role of atomic energy and coal.

The “voice of business” believes energy prices will have to rise 30% in real terms by 2020 and some kind of financial incentives might be needed so that up to 15 new nuclear plants are constructed, capable of providing 34% of UK electricity by 2030.

John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI, denied business leaders had become “anti-renewables” or have been captured by a nuclear lobby, which so far has talked about building six or eight new plants. “We are not obsessed with nuclear. We have a passion for low carbon,” said Cridland. But he warned that government targets of generating 32% of electricity from wind were unachievable and should be scaled back to at least 25%.

“While we have generous subsidies for wind power, we urgently need the national planning statements needed to build new nuclear plants. If we carry on like this we will end up putting too many of our energy eggs in one basket. But by moving government policy in a different direction we can achieve a good balance of wind, nuclear, gas and clean coal,” he added.

The comments came alongside launch of a report, Decision Time, which warns that failure to take a more balanced approach will leave the country dangerously dependent on imported gas.

The CBI’s advice comes just days before the government is scheduled to unveil an energy white paper, a renewable energy strategy and a low-carbon industrial strategy.

Ironically, the business group’s arguments were given more weight by the renewables industry itself. A report out tomorrow from the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) accepts that only half of the onshore targets for England promised by local areas under “regional spatial strategies” have been met.

The CBI stance will alarm large swaths of the environmental movement, which will note that references to the possible need for a floor price for carbon, and others about wind “crowding out” investment in atomic power, follow similar statements from EDF Energy and E.ON, the foreign-owned utilities that want to construct new reactors in Britain.

Vincent de Rivaz, the chief executive of EDF in Britain, and Paul Golby, the boss of E.ON UK, were both quick to welcome the CBI report, which was drawn up with McKinsey, the management consultant.

“We are pleased that the CBI chose to tackle the issue of how to encourage low-carbon generation,” said de Rivaz. “Action is required now in order to maximise our ability to hit our low-carbon targets in the most affordable way for UK consumers.”

The CBI report calls for the 2020 renewables target to be reduced to 25% but coal, either in its existing shape or “cleaned” by carbon capture and storage, should see its share of the total electricity generation portfolio raised to 16%. The CBI also wants energy efficiency targets to be almost doubled to 20%.

Cridland said the CBI had been in close dialogue with ministers and he was confident some of its measures would be represented in the white paper. But he accepted it would be politically tough to dilute the wind target and boost nuclear – which supplies less than 20% of UK electricity – without protests from green groups.

The BWEA said the results of its progress report on England’s regional renewable targets were worrying: “There is a divergence between government renewable energy and climate change planning policy and what is actually happening on the ground.”

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “The CBI claims to represent the interests of British industry but it’s actually doing its members a great disservice. Investment in renewables would create much-needed British jobs in one of the few growth sectors in the global economy.”

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CBI call for nuclear power stations

July 13th, 2009 | No Comments

• John Cridland, business group’s deputy director general, urges ‘balance of wind, nuclear, gas and clean coal’
• Greenpeace makes case for investment in renewables to ‘create much-needed British jobs’

The CBI has thrown its weight behind the nuclear industry’s calls for government to scale back “overambitious” wind power targets and boost the role of atomic energy and coal.

The “voice of business” believes energy prices will have to rise 30% in real terms by 2020 and some kind of financial incentives might be needed so that up to 15 new nuclear plants are constructed, capable of providing 34% of UK electricity by 2030.

John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI, denied business leaders had become “anti-renewables” or have been captured by a nuclear lobby, which so far has talked about building six or eight new plants. “We are not obsessed with nuclear. We have a passion for low carbon,” said Cridland. But he warned that government targets of generating 32% of electricity from wind were unachievable and should be scaled back to at least 25%.

“While we have generous subsidies for wind power, we urgently need the national planning statements needed to build new nuclear plants. If we carry on like this we will end up putting too many of our energy eggs in one basket. But by moving government policy in a different direction we can achieve a good balance of wind, nuclear, gas and clean coal,” he added.

The comments came alongside launch of a report, Decision Time, which warns that failure to take a more balanced approach will leave the country dangerously dependent on imported gas.

The CBI’s advice comes just days before the government is scheduled to unveil an energy white paper, a renewable energy strategy and a low-carbon industrial strategy.

Ironically, the business group’s arguments were given more weight by the renewables industry itself. A report out tomorrow from the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) accepts that only half of the onshore targets for England promised by local areas under “regional spatial strategies” have been met.

The CBI stance will alarm large swaths of the environmental movement, which will note that references to the possible need for a floor price for carbon, and others about wind “crowding out” investment in atomic power, follow similar statements from EDF Energy and E.ON, the foreign-owned utilities that want to construct new reactors in Britain.

Vincent de Rivaz, the chief executive of EDF in Britain, and Paul Golby, the boss of E.ON UK, were both quick to welcome the CBI report, which was drawn up with McKinsey, the management consultant.

“We are pleased that the CBI chose to tackle the issue of how to encourage low-carbon generation,” said de Rivaz. “Action is required now in order to maximise our ability to hit our low-carbon targets in the most affordable way for UK consumers.”

The CBI report calls for the 2020 renewables target to be reduced to 25% but coal, either in its existing shape or “cleaned” by carbon capture and storage, should see its share of the total electricity generation portfolio raised to 16%. The CBI also wants energy efficiency targets to be almost doubled to 20%.

Cridland said the CBI had been in close dialogue with ministers and he was confident some of its measures would be represented in the white paper. But he accepted it would be politically tough to dilute the wind target and boost nuclear – which supplies less than 20% of UK electricity – without protests from green groups.

The BWEA said the results of its progress report on England’s regional renewable targets were worrying: “There is a divergence between government renewable energy and climate change planning policy and what is actually happening on the ground.”

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “The CBI claims to represent the interests of British industry but it’s actually doing its members a great disservice. Investment in renewables would create much-needed British jobs in one of the few growth sectors in the global economy.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


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LA Vows to be Coal-Free by 2020: Can It Be Done?

July 11th, 2009 | No Comments

Yesterday, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced his intention to make the city entirely coal-free by 2020, and turn to clean and renewable energy instead. Inspiring? Yes. Possible? Maybe not so much.

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