ENERGY
The Liberal Democrats reject the use of nuclear power because of the risk of accidents and the long-term legacy of waste. Because it is an inherently secretive area, it is impossible to properly scrutinise the costs. And, in addition, putting pressure on foreign powers to limit their own nuclear programmes and halt nuclear weapons proliferation becomes much easier when we have demonstrated that civil nuclear power is not needed in the UK.
Instead, Liberal Democrat energy policies are based on five key ideas:
1. Energy efficiency
2. Microgeneration
3. Renewable energy
4.
Carbon capture & storage
5. Environmental taxation
1. Energy Efficiency
The Liberal
Democrats believe the most sensible way to ensure security of supply and avoid
astronomical expense is to use energy more efficiently. Apart from onshore wind
farms, investment in energy efficiency is the cheapest possible energy
policy.
27% of Britain’s carbon emissions come from housing, The Liberal Democrats
have put forward their Climate Change Starts at Home proposals which aim to
increase home energy efficiency, reducing carbon dioxide emissions produced by
lighting and heating our homes by at least 60% by
2050.
You can read more about the climate change
starts at home proposals here.
2.
Microgeneration
Microgeneration is the generation of
low-carbon heat and power by individuals, small businesses and communities to
meet their own needs. Bringing energy generation closer to people in this way
will forge the vital link between our concern about climate change and our
energy consumption in the home.
Microgeneration offers fantastic possibilities not least by dramatically reducing the energy supply chain. 78% of primary energy input is lost in the centralised system and wasted through domestic energy inefficiency.
Microgeneration and district combined heat and power, as long as the grid and a sufficiently flexible centralised capacity is set up to work with them, could provide at least 30% of our electricity.
The future home generation package could also include solar thermal heating,
ground heat pumps and micro-wind turbines. If every building could generate some
or all of its own electricity, through micro-renewable energy this would meet
all the goals of the Government’s energy policy: sustainability, diversity and
security of supply.
3. Renewable
Energy
The UK is blessed with the best renewable energy
resources in Europe - wind and tidal, as well as the potential from solar,
biomass and geothermal. Yet by focusing almost solely on wind technology the
Government is jeopardising the nation’s security of power supply. It’s also
imposing a one-size-fits-all rule on local communities. As a result only 4% of
electricity is generated from renewable energy at present, a figure which would
greatly increase given investment.
The Liberal Democrats propose a substantial increase in the use of renewable energy setting a target of 30% of electricity to come from clean, non-carbon-emitting sources by 2020, rising to 100% by 2050. This will take full advantage of its environmental and security of supply benefits.
There are a great number of attractive large scale renewables projects on offer.
For example the Irish wind farm company Airtricity has a plan for a 10 gigawatt wind farm in the North Sea – the equivalent of 6 or 7 new nuclear power stations. Tidal flow and wave technology could produce 20% of our electricity requirements, with major projects such as the Severn Barrage and the Pentland Firth, feasible within the timescale needed to replace all Britain’s nuclear power stations.
Low carbon energy production should be given priority in order to meet energy
targets. For example, the rules concerning financial guarantees required of
generators asking for connection to the grid have put offshore wind generators
in a Catch-22 position. They should be reformed.
4. Carbon
Capture and Storage
New advances in carbon capture and
storage and ‘clean coal technology’ hold out a real prospect that existing coal
power stations can be replaced or re-fitted within the next 15 years, to produce
electricity more efficiently, but with substantial reductions in the carbon
emissions of existing coal and gas power stations.
A number of technologies for capturing CO2 from large scale power and heat processes are already being developed, demonstrated or deployed in the USA and Canada. Germany is set to have a major coal power station using the most advanced clean coal technology in the next decade, years ahead of any possible new nuclear power station being built in the UK.
In addition, technological breakthroughs in underground coal gasification
offer the prospect of capturing gases before electricity is produced, rather
than after. Given the UK’s huge coal reserves, the potential for these
technologies should be a priority for any energy review.
5.
Environmental Taxation
Environmental taxation offers huge
opportunities for managing energy demand and switching energy supplies and
transport to the least polluting.
Yet under Labour, the revenue raised in environmental taxation has fallen as
a share of GDP, and poor decisions have been made on the design of green
taxes.
Energy taxation was introduced in 2001 for electricity, gas
and other fuels for non-domestic sectors of the economy via the Climate Change
Levy. The Liberal Democrats believe a carbon tax approach to reducing emissions
would have significant advantages.
Firstly, it would take advantage of the administrative systems that already exist. Secondly it would be economically efficient. In addition, taxation levels could be adjusted to deliver the required levels of carbon savings.
Other environmental taxation changes could be introduced to help roll out our vision of a decentralised energy system. Microgeneration could be encouraged at local government level by reduced stamp duty/council tax for properties capable of generating their own electricity and expand capital allowances for businesses.
In addition to environmental taxation there are a series of other policy levers Liberal Democrats would use.
These include changing the remit of Ofgem, so that its first priority was
developing energy markets that helped tackle climate change. This would help,
for example, in the reform of electricity markets, so that low carbon emissions
were given higher priority, in the order of which power stations were
contributing electricity to the grid.
You can read more
about the Liberal Democrats’ Green Tax Switch proposals here.
