The sun is setting on nuclear power plans for the UK
For years the government has placed its faith in nuclear power and the
corporate interests that drive the nuclear industry. Its committment to the
nuclear dream has warped Britain’s energy
policy at the expense of both bill and tax
payers.
Over the last two weeks all of the Big Six energy companies - E.On, RWE, nPower, British Gas, EDF, Scottish Power, and Scottish and Southern Energy - have announced reduction in their prices for gas or electricity. However, our analysis of the reductions in wholesale prices compared to the retail prices show that the Big Six are not passing on the fulls savings to their customers.
Although the world has access to enough clean energy to meet
our energy needs six times over, it also has an abundance of coal.
Globally coal is the greatest climate threat we face, contributing
more to global warming than any other fossil fuel. Coal contains more carbon
than other fossil fuels , so it releases more carbon than the other fuels when it’s
burned.
Coal is used to produce nearly 40%
of the world’s electricity and governments around the world are allowing
industry to spend billions of dollars on new coal-fired power stations.
Hundreds are currently under construction or in planning.
Posted by tracy -
19 June 2008 at 10:43am -
19 Comments
No one will be surprised that Greenpeace is against the construction of new nuclear power stations, but what some may find unusual is one of the solutions we are proposing to meet our energy needs and reduce our CO2 emissions - industrial CHP, or combined heat and power.
Securing Power is a new report by world leading energy experts Pöyry Energy Consulting and provides a compelling piece of the answer to the energy security and CO2 emissions challenges that the UK faces today. Pöyry's ground breaking analysis shows there is an unprecedented opportunity for very large scale combined heat and power (CHP) plants to provide both heat and electricity fromthe same fuel, allowing us to cut emissions, reduce fuel use, cut costs and provide up to 16GW of new electricity generating capacity to meet UK demand over the coming years.
Securing Power is a new report by world leading energy experts Pöyry Energy Consulting and provides a compelling piece of the answer to the energy security and CO2 emissions challenges that the UK faces today. Pöyry’s ground breaking analysis shows there is an unprecedented opportunity for very large scale combined heat and power (CHP) plants to provide both heat and electricity fromthe same fuel, allowing us to cut emissions, reduce fuel use, cut costs and provide up to 16GWof new electricity generating capacity to meet UK demand over the coming years.
The way we use energy is shockingly wasteful. Every year, we throw away more than eight times the amount of energy supplied by all of the UK's nuclear power stations combined.
Through our inefficient use of energy (gas guzzling vehicles, badly insulated buildings, poorly designed appliances etc) we needlessly throw away almost a third of the energy we use (source).
Responding to today's first reading of the Electricity (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill - which will enable government to increase their stake in British Energy and to make unlimited funds available to the company - Greenpeace Energy Campaigner Jim Footner said,
Facebook
Twitter
Flickr
YouTube
RSS