Renewable energy is cheapest of options
A COUPLE of weeks ago (April 10) I wrote about the expansion of windpower generation in Scotland and on Saturday had lunch in a pub watching turbines turning outside Burnley.
I agree the UK shouldn’t be held to ransom by foreign gas producers able to turn off the tap or push up the price as suits them. Our old people shouldn’t be left in the cold and our industries shouldn’t be handicapped by high energy costs.
Fracking companies promise to prevent this while pension fund managers who resist calls to divest hope to benefit.
However Cardiff Business School has just reported we would need 6,100 wells to simply halve our 20212035 gas imports – that’s drilling and fracking a well a day for fifteen years! And if they produce the minimal end of what’s predicted we would need 16,500.
We’ve already seen the protests over individual fracking test sites, with dozens of police diverted daily from fighting crime. How many thousands will be deployed (to the benefit of criminals)?
Six thousand one hundred wells need more than 1,000 pads, each with cabin offices, access roads and facilities - some blot on our green and pleasant countryside as it is industrialised, all with no guarantee of cheap energy. Indeed costing to build and then dismantle plant for an industry that literally breaks up its land, injects it with dangerous chemicals and then burns its products! In contrast, renewable energy production is booming, with Portugal producing 104 per cent of its needs last month. UK power stations recently went for 72 hours not burning coal (though some were burning wood). And Forbes reports renewable electricity generation internationally (less than $55 MWh) becoming cheaper than that from fossil fuels, and much cheaper than new nuclear. Building Hinkley Point C is expected to cost £19bn, to produce electricity at £92 ($129) per MWh. And our government guarantees these higher prices!
Divestment is financially prudent as well as environmentally demanded. Let’s get on with radical action to achieve the goals of local green jobs, warm grandparents and energy that is both affordable and doesn’t bring the collateral clean up costs later. Ieuan Ap-Don, Salford