Take Action:
You can help achieve a sensible approach to renewable energy.
The government’s recent Energy Review (July 2006) has recognised the need to reform the Renewables Obligation to provide support for a wider variety of renewable energy generation, which would remove the need for industrial-scale wind farms. We are calling on the government to act now, rather than wait until 2009 as it proposes, to introduce this reform.
Read our January 2007 submission to the Government's Review of the Renewables Obligation (pdf).
If you only have 15 minutes, write a letter to your MP and include the following points:
- The Renewables Obligation has created a system that overwhelmingly favours on-shore wind turbines. The financial driver of the Renewables Obligation should differentiate between the different technologies and their readiness for the market.
- There is an urgent need for reform of financial support to make sure that the renewable energy sector encourages a wide range of technologies.
- The ‘banding’ system proposed in the Energy Review is a way of doing this, but 2009 is too long to wait for this to be introduced. The Westminster and Scottish Parliaments have the power to to introduce this now.
- Reliance on electricity from wind turbines feeding our existing transmission and distribution system runs the danger of instability in the grid.
- There is a clear need to plan for an appropriate energy mix which will ensure a secure and efficient supply of electricity from renewable sources, in locations which can accommodate them without adverse environmental impacts.
- There is a need to ensure that targets for energy efficiency and demand reduction across all sectors are set and met in order to meet our CO2 emissions targets.
Please send us a copy of the letter as well.