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Peter Hain - Former Minister for Energy and Competitiveness in Europe (Jan 2001 - Jun 2001)"The Government's Future Manifesto and How This will affect the Greening of the Energy Industry" |
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Renewable energy is at the top of my agenda and the Prime Minister made clear his own commitment. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister chose to make in his wide-ranging speech the Government's strategy on the environment. The Prime Minister explained how, even if the targets set at Kyoto are met, this would be only a very small step towards halting the process of global warming. Experts predict that global emissions will need to be cut by perhaps 60% or more if we are to avoid dangerous climate change. Renewable energy and energy efficiency are key measures that have to be much more widely adopted if we are to achieve the necessary cuts in emissions into the future. On embedded generation, we have taken the lead in setting up a joint industry-Government Working Group to look into the commercial, regulatory and technical environment in which renewable and other distribution-connected generation has to operate. The Working Group has now reported and we are currently seeking responses from interested parties, preferably by the end of this month. I would also highlight the role of cleaner coal technology, particularly the environmental benefits it can bring to developing countries such as China and India that are so very dependent on coal as an energy source. In these and other developing countries, current technologies are often less clean and less efficient than conventional technologies used in the UK. So the potential environmental gains from their switching to new, cleaner technologies are all the greater, especially as demand for power in developing countries continues apace. Renewable energy is part of a wider sustainability agenda that has important policy implications both nationally and internationally. The Prime Minister mentioned several of these in his recent speech - better use of energy by business, the development of low Carbon Technologies, our own Renewables Obligation, programmes to cut emissions in the transport sector and promotion of much greater energy efficiency in the domestic sector. We are now looking to really accelerate the development of renewable energy in this country and in a wide range of technologies. We want to see offshore wind and energy crops projects developing in the near future, bringing significant contributions in 2010 to our 10%renewable energy target. In our consultation paper last October, we proposed that hydro, landfill gas, energy from waste, onshore and offshore wind, biomass and energy crops, wave power and PV should all count towards our 10% target. Some of these such as hydro and landfill gas are well developed commercially. Others - offshore wind and energy crops - are at the early demonstration stage and need to be brought quickly to full commercialisation. Others such as wave power need further R&D. Through the Renewables Obligation, we aim to provide an assured market for renewable energy until 2026. That is undoubtedly the single most important measure we are taking and it is vital that we get the detail of the Obligation right for starting on 1 October. This timetable is a challenging one and does, of course, depend upon securing State Aid approval and approval of our proposals by both Houses of Parliament. We are expecting to carry out the final, statutory consultation on the Obligation in May. I am very pleased to launch today the analysis of responses to the consultation on the Obligation. Key issues were the question of whether or not to include energy from waste in the Obligation, the proposed level of capital grants, the treatment of imports, the question of a banded Obligation or not and the profile of the Obligation up to 2010. And, of course, the very important question of the cost to the consumer. It is encouraging that so much of our proposed policy has met with broad support from the industry and the public - we shall make our final proposals in the statutory consultation in May, prior to laying the necessary Order before the House. We now have a package of support measures for renewables amounting to over £250m over the next 3 years. Some of this is already allocated to offshore wind and energy crops, but there is also room for support for other technologies plus a substantial R&D budget. We shall take decisions on the allocations of the £100m, announced by the Prime Minister recently once we have the report on renewables that the Performance and Innovation Unit are working on at the moment. We have also recently announced a demonstration programme for PV that will give positive support to this technology. An important driver will, I believe, be the exemption of renewables electricity from the Climate Change Levy. Another important strand of our policy is the development of regional strategies and targets for renewables with local stakeholders signed up, having reached a local consensus over the siting of renewable energy projects in future. Everybody wants clean and green energy but nobody likes the idea of a power station in their backyard, be it nuclear, coal or gas. But when it comes down to practical decisions about renewables, there is still a 'NIMBY' ['not in my backyard'] attitude. People will be faced with blunt choices: clean energy or dirty energy. I think when talking about planning it is important to remember that the buy-out price under the Obligation is expected to open up the possibility of onshore wind turbines being sited off the hilltops in future and this will allow for more sensitive siting, reducing the present problem of visual intrusion. There are also exciting opportunities to develop wind energy offshore. We have been working closely with the Crown Estate on a new consents process and we are out to consultation on this at present. We should be able to achieve substantial improvements to the environment through our new renewable energy policy. There will also be commercial opportunities worldwide and an opportunity to assist developing countries. I am particularly keen that we should do all we can to help Africa develop through the spread of clean energy technologies. Outside South Africa, just 9% of Africans have access to electricity: 533 million do not. A major barrier is the prohibitive cost of fixed infrastructure across huge distances to remote areas. Photovoltaics could really take off in African conditions, providing enough electricity for lighting, cooking, cooling and communications - really improving the quality of life and, I believe, playing an important role in poverty alleviation. We also need to consider the contribution that could be provided through energy generation from collecting methane from working and abandoned coal mines and using it for electricity generation rather than the methane simply being vented to atmosphere. I would like to see more of this type of development in the UK. Such methane cannot be treated as renewable energy under the Renewables Obligation as it is a fossil fuel, but we are considering what other assistance might be available. We are also committed to reviewing the case for a demonstration plant for cleaner coal technology. |
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Other speeches by Peter Hain - Former Minister for Energy and Competitiveness in Europe (Jan 2001 - Jun 2001)
(the following are available from the archive) |
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