David Cameron Has Been Paying Attention

16th January 2008

This is a letter I sent to the group.

Dear All, I don't know if any of you saw David Cameron on Sunday AM last week, but I was heartened to hear him support microgeneration as an essential part of our future energy strategy. As he so eloquently pointed out - even if we were to begin building nuclear power stations today - they would not be online until nearly 2020.

In the intervening decade - the only technology which can provide the energy we need is small-scale renewables - i.e. microgeneration. This is the policy I have been trying to get this group to support - alongside (if necessary) their support for nuclear... It now seems that this is the Conservatives policy too.

If renewables were properly supported - it *is* perfectly feasible that they could provide 90%+ of our energy needs. The 'evidence' which suggests otherwise is flawed - usually by concentrating on a single old or inappropriate technology - such as large-scale wind farms in the UK... (This, unfortunately, has been this group's predisposition too - as found in the ‘Secure Energy Supplies AND a Better Environment’ document.)

I am personally shopping for a solar hot-water heating system (evacuated tubes) - and came upon an interesting article: http://www.solartwin.com/news.php?page=30 "Solar Twin Ltd today claimed that the Government statement that ten new nuclear power stations are needed is partly based on government deliberately frustrating investment and innovation in the green energy sector."

The statement that "we believe that ‘renewables’ will not be able to supply more than 10% of our (increased) power requirement by say 2025" is likely to be just plain wrong. It certainly precludes innovation, and I would suggest a significant proportion of people in the country would take issue with it.

There's little value in political policies which alienate a significant proportion of the electorate... The point is supposed to be to attract voters - not put them off.

If the Conservatives get into power and implement the policies David Cameron was promoting (the same ones I have been attempting to sell to this group) - I think there's every chance that the proportion of energy from renewables will exceed 10% within 10 years - let alone 17 - and, clearly, so does he...

Here are some other policies I'd like to see implemented:

1. Proper tree-lined cycle paths - separate from the road - like in Holland - around the whole country. This would have a dramatic effect on:
   1. Reducing traffic & hence pollution.
   2. Increasing health by providing an opportunity to exercise which we have lost due to the number of cars on the road.
   3. Reversing the decline in the amount & diversity of wildlife.
   4. Increasing the amenity of the country to tourism.
2. Proper flood management systems so rivers don't flood into towns.
3. Protection of eroding coasts. Perhaps we could build tidal lagoons that would act both as protection & power generation...

Reply From Derek

I do appreciate your views and agree with David Cameron to the extent that microgeneration has a part to play in supplying domestic electricity in remote areas where it is expensive to run power lines. However it truly cannot be considered to meet the enormous power requirements of industry. And what about those, no sun, no wind days?

The only renewables being considered seriously by the government seem to be large-scale wind farms which, as you imply, simply don't work. When the wind drops, output falls to zero, and so it is necessary to have conventional power generation on standby to take up the load. The other renewables, particularly solar and tidal energy, are of enormous interest but not capable of instant upscaling to deal with tera-wattage needs. David Cameron and his advisers don't understand this because they do not listen to scientific advice. No amount of crash investment can quickly change this position until new discoveries in materials and engineering might possibly facilitate it. But you cannot force people to be inventive by throwing government money at them! Industry knows the scale of the prize and is currently funding the necessary research; the only things which inhibit this research are over-regulation, crass taxation policies and ignorant government subsidy of technology which has already been shown to be useless.

Unfortunately the voters think only in terms of domestic requirements, not in terms of high-density industrial needs. This reflects the inadequacy of their (state) education. As a nation we are not numerate; even our politicians seem unable to conceptualise the huge gap between millions and billions! I doubt if most people could tell you whether one billion was equal to one hundred or one thousand million ... or care; at least this used to be the position when I was interviewing university entrants educated in this country!

With greater political will at the planning stage, I believe that first-stage nuclear capacity could be on line by ca 2016-7 rather than 2020. Even if I am wrong, power shortages are certainly going to bite in the UK from about 2012, so what are we to do? The immediate answer is to be found in China, that is to build much sooner a number of efficient coal-fired stations and develop our indigenous coal reserves to fuel them. But this requires us to persuade a brain- washed public that anthropogenic global warming is not a problem. Apparently the Pope is now leading this hearts&minds crusade to abolish AGW and I am happy to fall in behind him! As you well know, the science is all on our (His) side.

Again I sympathise with your remaining points. however we seem unable to develop and manage our railway system, so that road traffic is here for the foreseeable future. As to flooding, don't you think that instead of building low-cost housing on flood-plains we ought to control immigration? Others tell me that coastal erosion is here to stay, and that only King Canute would try to control it ( ... which is unfair on the King who was only trying to demonstrate the immense power of Nature, a lesson which should not go amiss with UN-IPCC and its political paymasters).

Next Installment

Three-Levels Of Renewable Energy

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