Using less energy should now be our first priority
NET Zero is much broader than just providing clean energy for the electricity grid. It’s about all our greenhouse gas emissions from transport, in our homes, our workplaces, farms and more.
This will bring significant challenges in a few decades, but at our current stage of transition to Net Zero, we’re surrounded by opportunities.
Using less energy, where this can be achieved, should be our first priority. Building regulations should be changed to ensure that houses built today are fit for 2050 because it’s cheaper to build properly than retrofit. But we do need to improve older housing stock, there’s no reason why we should have the leakiest houses in Europe.
Heat pumps are amazing because they steal energy from the environment. Modern ones are up to 400% efficient and they should be mandated in new houses. Most existing houses can have heat pumps fitted but the government is failing to show leadership by not countering the many myths that are out there. Even if adding heat pumps means we need more gas power plants, we would be reducing our emissions compared with gas boilers in homes. Electric vehicles are also far more energy efficient than yesterday’s technology and electric bikes and cargo bikes are better still.
There’s a pattern here, we will need more electricity and as long as we exploit the available renewable energy, we’ll be making progress even if we end up with some more gas turbines in the short term. We will look back in 20 years time and wonder why we didn’t make better progress on the easy stuff.
Reticence on turbines must be put aside
ENERGY market analysts at Montel Enappsys report that wholesale electricity prices in the UK fell sharply in the first three months of 2024. This was primarily because wind and solar energy provided almost half the UK’S electricity needs for that quarter.
Clean energy is putting downward pressure on electricity and even gas prices. Good news for households, the economy, energy security and climate change
Different analysis by Exeter University’s Environmental Intelligence Centre tells us that we would only need 3% of our land to increase the renewable energy output in England by a factor of 13. Given that land with wind turbines can be farmed, this can have minimal impact on our food production. On the other hand, if we don’t act on climate change, vast amounts of farmland will become less productive and less able to feed us. This will also affect the food we import.
Why then does it remain almost impossible to erect wind turbines in England? Rishi Sunak promised he would change that. He wants us to think he’s sorting out the problem, but his failure panders to Nimbys, lobbyists and Tory party donors from the fossil fuel industry. If we want to reduce our carbon emissions and the price of electricity quickly, nothing can be built faster or more economically than solar farms and onshore wind. Is it worth making a total mess of our children’s future for the sake of a view? They’ll never forgive us if we do.