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North Wales Energy Breakfast 2010
Wales has the resources to become an energy powerhouse if the right moves are made and planning barriers can be overcome, Insider’s Energy Forum heard.
David Harries, partner at Aaron & Partners, said the future for UK energy supply was a mix involving more nuclear power stations: “Over half of the UK’s energy came from coal during the last cold snap, and over half that coal came from Russia. You only have to look at the antics of Putin and Ahmedinejad to see that those sources are not satisfactory. Some form of replacement has to be found.”
Small scale renewables could make a difference, according to Gareth Jones, director of Carbon Zero UK. “Private home owners need to start producing their own energy through PV and small-scale wind,” he said. “Wales has some of the best resources in energy. We could be leaders in Europe with the climate we have.”
Windpower Wales managing director Eryl Vaughan highlighted the UK government’s feed-in tariffs, which are due to kick in soon, as a potential boost for renewable energy. He said: “If you are going to put renewable energy capability into your house, the coming year is the best so far to be doing it. There is a sliding scale of support and a significant advantage to deploying the technology in the next year to 18 months.”
And Keith Bartlett, managing director of True Energy, said further support could come from the planned renewable heat initiative: “You get paid for the equivalent of a kilowatt of electricity that would have been used to heat water or heat space. That hasn’t been done in other countries. This and the feed-in tariffs will really drive renewables over the next five years.”
Business could get more involved the renewable opportunity, Vaughan said. “We are behind the curve,” he said. “I am fed up of going to Europe, following up a brilliant idea on renewable energy, and finding that the Scottish Government has been there six months before us.
“But we are waking up and we understand the capabilities and resources that we have. Get involved, because now is the time. You haven’t seen in the last two centuries such a need for change. The biggest problem of our age is also the biggest opportunity.”
Bartlett said Wales was ahead in some areas: “The Assembly have been doing a lot of research in South Wales. They are starting to make a whole host of solar products which are good in lower light. We are ahead of the curve in some areas, but strategically, it seems we are behind.”
On the contentious topic of planning, most audience members with an opinion said the system was not working perfectly. Vaughan said the best approach was consultation with the local community, while Jones called for officials to be better informed: “We need to see big changes in planning and building control. A lot more education for planners on these changes as well as more leniency for renewable energy would be useful.”
The planning system is “totally unsatisfactory”, according to Harries, who said there was a conflict between the Assembly Government’s low carbon objectives and the planning regime, and further conflicts at a UK level: “You have two arms of government saying totally contradictory things, which if allowed to continue would prevent any development at all.”
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