The UK Energy Bill is going through Parliament right now! The Energy Bill covers a wide range of issues from fossil-fuels and nuclear power to renewable energy such as tidal, wind and solar power.
The history of renewable energy in the UK shows that the Government has always been happier spending vast sums of public money on nuclear power rather than on developing safe and sustainable energy sources.
Feed-In Tariff
Part of the Bill will seek to modify and strengthen the existing Renewables Obligation, committing energy companies to firm targets, which has been far less successful than the Feed-In Tariff system used in most of the rest of the European Union.
The Feed-In Tariff is a duty on energy companies to pay a guaranteed, long-term, premium price for electricity generated by renewable sources.
Considerable success
Feed-In Tariffs have been introduced in 17 European countries with considerable success. In 2007, Germany, driven by Feed-In Tariff legislation, generated 15% of its energy from renewable sources, compared with just 2.3% in the UK.
A Feed-In Tariff would provide for the expansion of smaller scale renewable technologies by providing a better return for those who invest in them, and providing security on that investment.
Contact your MP
Friends of the Earth is calling on MPs to support a Renewable Energy Tariff (aka Feed-In Tariff) in the Energy Bill.
Add your voice to the campaign by contacting your MP to express your concern about the lack of support for smaller scale renewable schemes and urging them to support ‘Early Day Motion 2226′ which calls for a Renewable Energy Tariff to be included in the Energy Bill.
Enter your postcode in the box below to find out how to contact your MP by email or post.
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Twitter: @cybasurfa
Great article… and thanks for the facility to contact my MP, otherwise I wouldn’t have known how and probably wouldn’t have bothered (I did though!)
Ive found the rise in positive opinion for nuclear power as a solution to the UK energy crises quite baffling. Why would be want to build more of these unsustainable behemoths? Crazy….
@Energy Watcher: Welcome to Green Pepper and thanks for joining the discussion. The rise of opinion in favour of nuclear power is indeed baffling. Didn’t we learn anything from Chernobyl?