Our Energy Mix

What energy sources should be used here in West Berkshire. What are the problems faced by us all in choosing the form of energy generation to solve the expanding energy needs of the 21st century and the need to avoid serious climate change.

We have some hard choices ahead but we also have to accept there is no choice as to whether we change our attitudes to many of those choices. Compromise is the order of the day. Significant wind installations of all sizes on and off shore (yes, even in open country), tidal and wave power, mini-hydro on our rivers, solar PV and solar thermal, ground and air source heat pumps are among the obvious relative low cost and safe forms of  energy generation that we should employ first. These can also give us a degree of local control and autonomy offering energy security at a local level. We must increase our respect for both 'Energy Efficiency' and 'Energy Conservation'. It is vital that our both our homes and businesses of all sizes are made more energy efficient.

We cannot continue to use energy at our current rate, build any sort of power facility, either nuclear, clean coal or renewable without powering down our society. Eventually how ever distasteful it will be to some people we will have to face the vexing question of population numbers.

Clean coal (an impossibility in the opinion of some people and still undeveloped on a large scale) and Nuclear (with a variable history of delivery and safety) are expensive options if they were to provide the only source of power. Though they are probably essential to carrying the 'base load'. Remember by around 2050 Natural Gas will be running down too! So even your gas cooker may well have to be electric. These also represent a large investment of people and money which causes them to become a block to any other energy source. Providing these facilities to provide for the base load of societies energy needs is financially unattractive to the markets. This is the problem thrown up by a 'privatised' energy market bent on selling as much consumable energy as possible to maximize profits for their shareholders.

Fossil fuels are finite it will and does fall to governments to face up to the fact that never again will we be able to depend on one form of energy generation  as we did in the past.

Albeit that energy may well continue to be carried to our homes and our cars in the form of electric power; first coal, then oil, then we dreamed of Nuclear power. None of these have lived up to our expectations and needs. Will solar, will wind?

Well, Mother Earth has been powered by them for billions of years. Earth bio-systems have learnt to harness the energies of these; why is man so arrogant as to believe this is wrong? Is this because we don't believe that a free energy source is worth having?  Is it because the commercial world has not worked out how to make a profit from 'free' resources?