Glenn Goodall

The Grundian has accused civil servants in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) of delaying renewables energy schemes. Apparently, attempts have been made to water down and/or delay the introduction of  feed-in tariffs which would aid the implementation of large scale schemes to harness renewable energy.

These feed-in tariffs have been implemented in Germany since 1999, and they have 250 time more power from solar power installations and 10 times more power from wind than the UK.

It has been suggested that civil servants in DECCs have been seduced by the argument for Nuclear power, many through power company lobbying.

Obviously, we will never be able to support our power needs from renewable energy alone. To achieve this, the majority free space in the UK would have to be turn over to Solar PV and wind generation. The rest of the space would be used for in the production of biodiesel and ethanol, and all our coast would be involved it harnessing tidal power. Even then we’d need a few ‘cleanish’ coal and Nuclear power plants to make up the surplus.

Best estimates suggest we can realistically hope to get a third of our electricity needs from renewables alone. There is a need for a broad range of energy sources - Nuclear, Fossil fuel stations - with carbon capture, hydrogen fuel cell and renewable have a role to play, but there must be a balance.

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Fingers crossed that ITER works and subsequently DEMO gets rolled out across the plant - only 50 years to wait now :S