Archived press release

Energy review needs clean and safe solutions

18 January 2006

On Monday 23 January, the Government will announce a formal public consultation of UK energy policy. It will be launched with a statement of current evidence on the 2003 Energy White Paper goals and the government's plans for engagement with the public.

Tony Blair announced that there would be a review of the Government's Energy Strategy on 29 November 2005. The review, he said, would investigate how the UK should meet its future energy needs, and specifically ask whether or not the UK should build a new generation of nuclear power stations. Friends of the Earth says that new nuclear reactors are not needed and has identified 15 sustainable energy solutions which could meet much of our energy needs and make the UK a world leader in developing a low-carbon, nuclear-free economy.

A separate review of the Government's failing climate change programme is expected within weeks. Emissions of carbon dioxide have increased by 5.5 per cent since Labour came to power.

Tony Juniper, Executive Director at Friends of the Earth, said:

"UK energy policy is at a crossroads. We can tackle climate change and meet our energy needs by cutting energy waste, harnessing the power of renewables and using fossil fuels more efficiently. The Government must set us on the path to a clean, safe and sustainable future and turn its back for once and for all on the failed, dangerous and expensive experiment of nuclear power"

Energy review briefing

The following briefing contains:

• Background to the energy review

• A selection of green solutions for tackling climate change and meeting UK energy needs

• Why new nuclear reactors should not be built

• Some energy facts and figures

The Energy Review will assess progress against the four goals set by the 2003 Energy White Paper:

to put the UK on a path to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by some 60% by 2050 with real progress by 2020;

• to maintain the reliability of energy supplies;

• to promote competitive markets in the UK and beyond, helping to raise the rate of sustainable economic growth and to improve our productivity; and

• to ensure that every home is adequately and affordably heated.

The energy review will focus primarily on electricity generation. But this only accounts for less than a fifth of our energy use and around a third of our emissions. The review will also consider the energy required for transportation.

Friends of the Earth has identified 15 sustainable solutions which together would make the UK efficient in its energy-use and have an economy based on clean energy supplies which will provide a more sane and safe option to nuclear power. These are detailed below.

Fossil fuels will still have a role to play in UK energy production for the coming decades, but these can be phased out as cleaner technologies come on stream. Fossil fuels can also be burnt in a far more efficient and clean way through the use of cost-effective technologies.

Natural gas produces less carbon dioxide for the amount of energy it produces than either coal or oil. However, as UK sources of gas supplies have decreased, concerns have been raised about increased prices and security of supply. These concerns should not be overstated, as most of the UK's gas imports are currently from Norway.

But much of our gas - and indeed our energy - is wasted. Preventing this waste would improve our energy security, save money and reduce our emission of harmful carbon dioxide. For example all but 38 per cent of energy from fossil fuels is lost during its conversion to electricity.

Gas could be used far more efficiently to produce electricity by using it in combined heat and power plants (CHP). Coal-fired stations could cut their emissions by replacing inefficient boilers and burning biomass crops, as well as coal. All new fossil-fuel fired power plants should use efficient technology and be "capture-ready", i.e. able to adopt carbon capture and storage technologies when it becomes available.

Vast quantities of energy could also be saved by ensuring that homes and offices are properly insulated, and by setting tough energy efficiency standards for electrical appliances

By contrast, nuclear power only provides around a fifth of our electricity, no heat, and only about 3-4% of our overall energy needs. So a programme of new nuclear build would do very little to reduce our energy dependence and our greenhouse gas emissions. Nuclear is expensive, unreliable, and dangerous and produces wastes that remain hazardous for thousands of years (see end of briefing).

Friends of the Earth is campaigning for a new law that would require the Government to cut UK carbon dioxide emissions by three per cent every year, a move supported by over three hundred MPs.

If this happened the Government would have to ensure that tackling climate change was a central strand of every Government policy.

More information on Friends of the earth's climate campaign The Big Ask can be found at: www.thebigask.com

Sustainable Solutions

Insulate homes and offices - homes are responsible for almost a third of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK

The Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University has suggested that emissions from the UK's housing stock could be reduced by 60 per cent by 2050. According to the Carbon Trust, UK business wastes £1 billion a year in lost energy.

Almost halve the average carbon dioxide emissions from cars, vans and lorries by requiring, for example, use of hybrid technology in cars

Reduce CO2 emissions by 40 per cent with considerable savings in energy usage.

Generate 20-30 per cent of current domestic electricity and heat demand through micro-generation technologies in homes, e.g. solar panels, micro-wind turbines, solar water heating, small combined heat and power boilers, biomass heating

220 TerraWatt Hours (TWh) of heat and electricity could be generated this way by 2030 and 320 TWh by 2050. Current UK heat and electricity demand is around 1,100 TWh

Generate a quarter of electricity through highly efficient community-sized and larger gas-fired combined heat and power plants

Combined heat and power plants are around 40 per cent more efficient than conventional power plants which waste most of the heat they produce in the electricity generation process. This could produce100 TWh of electricity by 2020 (current electricity demand is 380 TWh).

Use biomass for 10 per cent of electricity, five per cent of transport fuel, and 5-10 per cent of current heat needs.

Growing crops for fuel results in no significant net increase in carbon dioxide as long as the harvested crops are replaced. A sustainable use of biomass could produce 38 TWh for electricity, 25 TWh for transport fuel and 50 TWh for heat. Many such crops could be harvested in the UK & the EU, which could greatly help improve our energy security.

Reduce the need to travel and get people to walk, cycle and use buses and trains more than present.

Early research for the Department for Transport shows that if the Government really pushed a package of behavioural change measures including road pricing, liveable cities, use of new technology and improved public transport, then carbon emissions could be cut from 38.6 MtC (the 1990 level) to 34 MtC by 2030.

Increase the use offshore wind to produce 10 per cent of electricity

By 2020 40 TWh of electricity could be produced by offshore wind. A recent DTI analysis of 30 years of wind speed data across the UK suggested that wind is a very reliable source of energy, is strongest when electricity demand is highest and is a more powerful source of energy in the UK than other countries within Europe.

Five per cent of electricity from on-shore wind

21 TWh by 2020 could be produced from this source.

Require efficient motor devices in industry to save six per cent of current electricity needs

Studies for the European Commission have identified the potential to make significant cuts in electricity-use and considerable financial savings by ensuring that industry uses correctly-sized and super-efficient motor devices. There is the potential to reduce electricity consumption by around six per cent in the UK by 2020. This is equivalent to three nuclear power stations.

Wave & tidal power for up to 5 per cent of electricity

Wave and tidal power could produce 10-20 TWh of electricity by 2020.

Create tidal lagoons to produce 5-10 per cent of electricity

Building lagoons off-shore, below the biodiversity rich mud-flats, enables sea water to be trapped and released steadily when the tide has retreated, providing a reliable source of energy and the potential to have a store of energy for release at peak demand. Tidal lagoons could provide 30 TWh by 2020.

Legislate to reduce energy wastage through televisions, and other electrical appliances that waste energy on stand-by mode

Around one nuclear power station in the UK has to be kept running in order to provide power for appliances not in use and on `standby' mode. Around 24 nuclear plants are kept running throughout the industrialised world for this purpose! Legislation is currently being considered by the EU.

Replace ordinary light-bulbs with energy efficient light-bulbs

This could reduce electricity consumption by at least two per cent (equivalent to one nuclear power station) by 2020. And the potential is much higher if we implement a programme to replace inefficient street lighting and lighting in the commercial sector.

Control peaks in demand for electricity with smart devices that control when fridges, air-conditioners, and water-heaters consume electricity

Demand for electricity varies and supply must continually vary to match it. Yet electricity cannot be stored. Gas and coal-fired power plants are therefore kept in reserve to fire up quickly should demand increase. This causes pollution. Many electrical appliances, such as fridges, air conditioners and water-heaters, are controlled by thermostats. They maintain a constant temperature by powering up for a short period and then shutting off again.

A new sensor could be fitted to the appliance to work alongside the thermostat. It would continuously measure the electricity grid to check whether supply and demand for electricity were matching. If supply exceeded demand, it would power the appliance up slightly earlier or shut off slightly later than the thermostat would. If demand exceeded supply, it would power up the appliance slightly later or shut it off slightly earlier. Trials show this has no effect on the performance of the appliance but does smooth demand for electricity - reducing the need for expensive and polluting back-up generation.

Using smart devices to switch on fridges could reduce total electricity demand by 0.4 - 1.2 per cent by 2030 and have no impact on the quality of refrigeration.

Investigating importing electricity from large-scale solar power plants in the Sahara.

We import gas from as far away as Russia, and electricity is traded throughout Europe, with plans to expand the grid into North Africa. The German Government is funding studies examining the potential to build large solar panels power plants in countries around the Sahara and exporting the electricity to Europe. The potential is so huge that by 2050 the UK could be importing 70 TWh from this source.

Why Nuclear Power is not the answer

Nuclear power produces waste that stays dangerous for tens of thousands of years. A new generation of reactors is likely to lead an increase in high level radioactive waste by a factor of four. The Government still doesn't know what to do with this waste. Britain currently has 470,000 cubic metres of waste enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall five times. The Swiss Government's nuclear waste authority assumes that the safety of the repository for spent fuel and High level radioactive waste has to be guaranteed for at least 1 million years.

Many processes used as part of nuclear power generation can also be used for covert weapons programmes. If the UK chooses to use nuclear power to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, it will provide an excuse that other countries may use to justify what are really weapons programmes.

Nuclear is not an `emissions free' solution. The mining and transport of uranium, the making of nuclear fuel rods, the building of nuclear power plants and the storage of nuclear waste all lead to carbon dioxide emissions. Nuclear produces 50% more greenhouse gas emissions than wind power

It is currently estimated that the cost of nuclear waste disposal will be around £56 billion, according the Government's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) which is an increase of £8 billion over previous estimates. The Government's rescue of British Energy in 2003 is expected to cost British tax payers £12 billion over the next 100 years.

Since 1974 the UK government has spent £6.8 billion in research and development funding for nuclear fission (compared to £540 million for renewables) according to information from the International Energy Agency.

No nuclear reactor would be able to withstand a direct hit from a 747 crashing into it. George Bush announced that US troops had found plans of US nuclear power stations at al-Qaeda hide-outs in Afghanistan. Research for the European Commission has said that a plane crashing into Sellafield could have an impact 40 times worse than that of the explosion at Chernobyl.

A more detailed nuclear briefing can be found at:

www.foe.co.uk/resource/media_briefing/nuclear_power_energy_review.pdf (PDF)

10 facts and figures

• Carbon dioxide emissions are now 5.5 per cent higher than when Labour came to power in 1997 - despite Government promises to make substantial cuts.

• In 2004 average industrial gas prices in the UK were the second lowest in the EU and the lowest in the G7.

• The average energy efficiency of houses in the UK is 51 out of 120. 120 indicate an extremely efficient house. Only 18 per cent of houses had full insulation by 2003.

• Between 1994 and 2004 average domestic prices fell by 27 per cent for electricity and11 percent for gas. UK industrial electricity prices fell by 35 per cent over the same period.

• 84 percent of the energy used in households in 2002 was for space or water heating.

• Since 1970 energy use for space heating has increased by 31 percent, for water heating by 13 percent and for lighting and appliances by 132 percent. By contrast energy use for cooking has fallen by 40 per cent.

• Since 1974 the UK government has spent £6.8 billion in research and development funding for nuclear fission (compared to £540 million for renewables)

• It is currently estimated that the cost of nuclear waste disposal will be around £56 billion

• Nuclear power produces waste that stays dangerous for tens of thousands of years. A new generation of reactors is likely to lead an increase in high level radioactive waste by a factor of four.

• Fuel use by cars has increased by 71 per cent since 1970

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust