The Government’s ‘Renewable Energy Strategy’ comes out tomorrow. Some details leaked in the G this weekend. “Revealed: UK’s blueprint for a green revolution”
The UK have had big plans before, though not this big – what we’ve always been missing is the guts to make them happen, to drive the change needed. That’s why we’ve missed targets before and why we’ll miss them again. Talk is one thing (and we’ve had plenty of it, low carbon economy this, climate change biggest threat that……. and so on) what we need is action.
Offshore costs twice as much to generate from so unless huge sums of public money are being set aside – it won’t happen. And onshore is blocked by the planning system and unless the government intends to get to grips with this simple reality – again it won’t happen.
The biggest potential we have comes from onshore wind, yet two thirds of all wind projects are refused by District Councils at the planning stage, and two thirds are upheld by the government at appeal – a lot of bad decisions being overturned, eventually.
It usually takes between three to five years, costs an awful lot of time and money just to get a simple decision. Wind is our big opportunity – it’s our new North Sea Oil. We’ve enough to run the country three or four times over and it’s stuck in a planning system that’s not fit for purpose and wasn’t designed for it.
Went on Radio 4’s PM show last week to bring this up with Adair Turner. Not often you get to put the questions direct to those who have the power to change the situation. Here’s hoping Brown et al actually achieve something this time …
Indeed. I read the excited proclamations in the Guardian and thought “And…?” If the government started implementing some of this stuff then I’d be impressed.