{"id":2742,"date":"2012-11-22T08:14:54","date_gmt":"2012-11-22T08:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=2742"},"modified":"2012-11-22T08:14:54","modified_gmt":"2012-11-22T08:14:54","slug":"are-there-are-still-innocents-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2012\/11\/22\/are-there-are-still-innocents-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Are there are still innocents abroad ..."},"content":{"rendered":"

... who think that the UK government has a clear and coherent energy policy despite all the evidence around them? \u00a0Are there those who really believe that carbon targets will be met, or that the lights will stay on, or that we won't end up paying $zillions to rapacious gas wholesalers? \u00a0If so, they should read Geoffrey Lean<\/a>, last week, ...<\/p>\n

Ensuring the country has enough energy is one of the most important, if unspectacular, tasks of government. \u00a0And ministers face what [Energy Secretary] Davey calls \u201cthe biggest overhaul of our energy infrastructure for decades\u201d, as a fifth of power stations come offline over the next 10 years. \u00a0A decision on how to replace them has been repeatedly put off, and has now been delayed again following this week\u2019s events. \u00a0The dithering is largely down to [Chancellor] Osborne, who has been pressing to scale down plans for renewable energy and further boost gas, which already dominates our energy supply. \u00a0He seems to believe that increasing clean energy and \u201cdecarbonising\u201d electricity generation will be bad for business, increase household bills and impede growth.<\/p>\n

Yet, all autumn, groups of major companies have been writing to him and the Prime Minister to urge them to press on with decarbonisation to, as one letter put it, give \u201cinvestors the certainty they need\u201d. Rising gas prices have caused much the greatest increase in electricity bills; blaming renewables instead has succeeded in diverting attention. And the CBI has shown that green business is one of the few parts of the economy to be \u201cgrowing steadily\u201d through the recession. \u00a0Worse, the indecision and the assault on clean power is deterring the investment needed to keep the lights on \u2013 and increasing the cost of capital, and thus future energy bills.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

... or this week's\u00a0Economist<\/a> ...<\/p>\n

This is part of a wider retreat from the green policies that the Conservative Party once trumpeted. In hard times, reticence is driven by fears over their high costs. \u00a0George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, is now fighting to shrink the green ambitions of a forthcoming energy bill. \u00a0But the objections of many Tories suggest a deeper animus, fuelled by Euroscepticism, climate-change denial and an attachment to a turbine-free English landscape. \u2026 Many are concerned about the growing clout of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which is keen to collect votes from the Tories in the 2015 general election. UKIP lambasts onshore wind farms as \u201cuneconomical and inefficient\u201d and accuses the government of backing them \u201cto secure the \u2018green\u2019 vote and to keep the EU happy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Subsidies for onshore wind are valued at some \u00a3400m ($640m) a year, but the cost per megawatt hour is half that of offshore wind or solar panels. \u00a0Renewables now generate around 10% of the country\u2019s electricity, which means more need building to reach the 2020 goal. \u00a0Though the target has involved overspending and government meddling, it has also served as an important green light for investors. \u00a0And as turbines get bigger and more efficient, the costs for operating and maintaining them are falling. Subsidies for the technology were cut 10% this year, and may soon be snipped further. \u00a0Michael Liebricht, head of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research firm, predicts that onshore wind could soon compete with coal and gas, as prices rise for fossil fuels and carbon.<\/p>\n

Polls show that most Britons back the technology, although views change when turbines are planned nearby. \u00a0The government is now looking into ways to get the NIMBYs on board. Most proposals involve some sort of compensation, either through reduced electricity bills or investments in local infrastructure. \u00a0This approach has helped to pacify critics in Denmark, where wind power is meant to generate half of all electricity by 2020. Developers there must also reimburse residents for any loss in property value. In Britain, though, the government\u2014and green investors\u2014seem to be twisting in the wind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

... and then sober up.<\/p>\n

It must be hard to teach about energy these days without straying into politics and citizenship, given that the energy mix, its future reliability, and its pricing are all subject to political influence. \u00a0What is<\/em> a physics teacher to do?<\/p>\n

Just teach physics, of course; that is forces, energy, circuits, magnets, etc, all that timeless stuff \u2013 just like the Sabre-tooth curriculum<\/a>,\u00a0and Mr Gove, say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

... who think that the UK government has a clear and coherent energy policy despite all the evidence around them? \u00a0Are there those who really believe that carbon targets will be met, or that the lights will stay on, or...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}