2003
built, nuclear power will almost have ceased by 2020. But before such plants are built, the problem of managing nuclear waste must be solved to the satisfaction of both the scientific community and the general public. The options for renewables are many, but all have impacts on the environment, sometimes visual and sometimes affecting air quality. Some, such as tidal barriers, would be expensive to construct and do not have the advantage of negative discounting in their costing that is apparently enjoyed by radioactive waste disposal. The abundant wind energy distributed across much of Britain’s land mass and the surrounding seas offers a vast resource, and there are very large quantities of energy in the form of waves and strong tidal currents. All should be harnessed for our needs. Despite frequently overcast skies, solar energy could also make a substantial contribution to UK energy needs – through electricity-generating photovoltaic panels, solar panels that heat water for use in buildings directly and building designs that enable sunshine to warm and light interiors. Alternatives to coal, oil and gas can also make a contribution. The growing of energy crops such as coppice willow, which are then burned or gasified and combusted to generate electricity and supply heat, could make a much larger contribution to the UK’s climate change strategy. They might also contribute to increasing biodiversity and improving farmland landscapes. But this cannot be achieved without major changes to agricultural support systems. Energy crops should receive the same level of support as other crops, but with improved environmental safeguards. Considering the enormous potential of UK renewable energy resources, it has been slow to make progress. There was an arrogant dismissal of the opportunities by many in the fossil fuel and nuclear industries in the 1980s; the research was not funded and the investment not made in the UK. Furthermore, policies have favoured the generation of electricity in ways that waste vast quantities of heat that could be used to warm buildings. Regulatory and planning policies should encourage the widest possible adoption of combined heat and power technology in urban locations to supply heat. As the proportion of electricity supplied by wind, waves, tides and sunshine increases, the intermittency of these sources will whose growing problems in matching supply with demand. The UK will need to maintain reserve generating capacity (consisting of fossil fuel or renewable fuel plant), add further storage schemes to the grid or develop novel energy carriers, such as hydrogen produced using electricity and then consumed in power-generating fuel cells. The royal commission, however, came to a clear conclusion: energy demand must be curbed to a significant degree. Otherwise, substantial reductions in UK emissions would require an enormous and environmentally intrusive contribution from renewable sources, augmented either by nuclear power or by fossil fuel power stations and the large-scale capture and isolation of carbon dioxide. Such new energy policies will not emerge unless there is a great change
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GCI ARCHIVE