Sam Hall has an interesting CAPX piece on how Conservatives could counter Labour green energy plans. Interesting as an indicator that neither party is connected to the real world beyond political rhetoric. The best we can hope for is a slower train wreck or Net Zero rebranded into less destructive environmental fantasies.
How Conservatives should counter Labour’s green energy plans
Labour is right to put forward a plan to deliver more clean energy. But few experts think the UK could decarbonise its electricity grid by 2030, as proposed by Labour, because of slow planning decisions, supply chain bottlenecks, and local consent challenges. They plan to solve this by accelerating planning decisions and grid connections. These changes will be critical, but Labour’s proposals to overrule councils on planning decisions could create a backlash from communities, jeopardising renewables deployment. There can be no shortcut for local consent.
The Government should show how they will meet their own ambitious target for decarbonising the power sector by 2035. They will need a detailed plan to unlock onshore wind, upgrade the grid, and speed up planning while ensuring local consent is still given. The Conservatives oversaw the construction of a world-leading offshore wind industry, scaling renewables to 44% of our electricity supply today from 7% in 2010. But despite that progress, there is much more to do, and all parties must offer an ambitious vision for clean power at the next election.
The whole piece is worth reading as an interesting example of how superficial the Net Zero debate must be at a political level. It cannot be technical, because technically it doesn't work. Peddling visions for the next election - it doesn't go one step beyond that.
5 comments:
I reckon 'netzero' will never be accomplished, as will happen to HS2.
We went through all the rigmarole of politicians dealing with issues they didn't understand, e.g.'The Dome', but Blair and Brown found enough cash on the money tree to fund it come what may.
You've hit the nail on the head about thick politicians and the next election!
It's starting to get interesting. If they fail to deliver Net Zero, then they don't love Gaia and swathes of people won't elect them. But if they try to force things through the bottlenecks, they will offend local interests and get hit that way.
They need to think about some prebuttal plan. A way of saying we have to modify Net Zero, but it was the other lot who stopped us from doing it.
Scrobs - that's it, politicians dealing with issues they don't understand. Instead they deal with spinning visions for the next election. Beyond that is a blank space.
Sam - the interesting stuff will be when practical impossibilities dawn on people and Net Zero has to evolve into something else. It's seems to be evolving now, but the next election is close enough to stick with the old vision and pretend otherwise.
Where does he get that figure of 44% from? Elsewhere I've seen figures of about 12 - 15%.
Tammly - I'm not sure but I assume it's the maximum possible output under ideal wind conditions. At the moment it's 8.69%. They live in a different world.
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