Two breaking stories neatly illustrate the flawed logic which still lurks at the heart of UK energy policy. First up is that German energy utility RWE's bid to build a new nuclear plant near Kirksanton in Cumbria will mean dismantling an existing wind farm on the site. While at the other end of the country, 600 workers at the Vestas Blades wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight could be facing redundancy.
Once again, Gordon Brown's lack of political initiative and vision has come under the spot light. Only a month on from pledging to find ways to help low-carbon manufacturers lead the UK out of recession, it looks like he's already reneging on his green new deal. Vestas, Britain's only wind turbine factory, is facing closure as the government has failed to remove the obstacles blocking faster wind farm development in contrast to booming wind energy sales in China and the US. This lack of support is now all too apparent as hundreds of British jobs could be lost. Last week's budget promised some hope, but has offered too little, too late.
For too long the UK government has ignored the needs of clean sources of energy such as wind, wave and tidal power. Instead it's wasted time and effort pushing new coal and nuclear power at the expense of renewable energy and energy efficiency. And in doing so, it risks suffocating the necessary support and incentives for the investment in the most significant energy source to the UK – wind. Despite our enormous potential for renewable energy development, the UK languishes close to the bottom of the EU league table, above only Luxembourg and Malta. Currently renewable sources supply around only five per cent of UK electricity and just 1.3 per cent of our total energy. Government renewable energy targets for 2010 have already been missed.
This bare conflict between nuclear and renewables, facilitated by the government, but perpetuated by companies like EDF and EON, is now becoming ever more apparent. For example, nuclear utility EDF has been campaigning for the UK to reduce its renewable energy target, which the company claims will constrain nuclear development. And RWE's plans to dismantle one of the oldest and most efficient wind farms in Britain, at Haverigg in Cumbria, to make space for a proposed new nuclear reactor is obviously based on a similar calculation.
But in truth the pressure is now on Mr Brown to close the gap between his rhetoric and reality. New targets set in Europe and backed personally by the prime minister require that 15 per cent of all UK energy (including heat and transport) comes from renewables by 2020. Which, roughly translated, means that between 30-45 per cent of UK electricity should be coming from renewables in the next 11 years - that's an increase of between 6 and 9 times current levels.
So if his government is serious about tackling climate change and beating the recession, then it needs to drop its belligerent obsession with nuclear and embrace and support a renewable industry that will not only keep the lights on but lift us out of the financial quagmire by creating thousands of new jobs like the ones now under threat at Vestas Blades. He could make a start by renewing guarantees that the UK will meet its legally binding renewable energy targets, and go further by demanding that major project developers, such as EON and RWE, who are reportedly holding back on projects including the London Array and Gwynt-y-Mor offshore wind farms, now move forward and give their projects the green light so that suppliers know there will be a UK market for their products.
Mr Brown should know better than most that out of crisis comes opportunity, and we can't afford to miss this one.
