Sunday 26 April 2015

Great Email: Action For Renewables

As one of your potential constituents, I wanted to get in touch ahead of the General Election to give you my views on what I think is a crucial issue for the country, the development of renewable electricity within the UK. Last year nearly 20% of our electricity came from different types of renewable energy such as wind and solar, and I believe that to meet our goals on energy security and climate change we need to increase that by at least half over the next Parliament.

 

I am one of the Green Collar Workers working hard in an industry that makes a real difference. I chose this industry over other better paying ones. Twenty years ago I stayed on at University after my four-year engineering degree to study renewable energy. I knew I was taking a risk but wanted to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. I made the right choice. I am still making the right choice. I want us to decarbonise and I want to play my part in that.

 

For us to succeed we need to make sure that the right conditions exist for investors to feel confident in bringing renewable energy projects forward. This means not arbitrarily ruling out different types of technologies such as onshore wind, backing new clean energy targets for 2030, and ensuring the financial conditions are right for both more mature technologies and those which are still developing. Essentially we need to make sure that we utilise all our renewable resources in development of our electricity.

 

I would really appreciate a response back to hear that you will back all types of renewable energy in the next Parliament, and below follows some useful facts about wind and marine energies.

 

Wind power

 

In 2014 onshore and offshore wind provided enough power for the equivalent of 6.7million homes annual needs. 9.3% of the UK’s total electricity supply.

 

Direct and indirect jobs in the UK wind sector equated to over 31,000 in 2013, with the potential to reach 100,000 by 2023.

 

Wind power is popular – around 2/3 of the population support onshore wind, and 3/4 offshore wind, as polled by the Government , and a poll last year found that political parties lose more votes than they gain by opposing wind.

 

Wind power is vital to our climate and energy security goals. The current wind fleet leads to 12million tonnes reduction of CO2 each year, and without wind power in 2013 we would have had to import an extra 6.1 million tonnes of coal.

 

Marine power

 

The UK currently leads the world in deployed marine power. There are currently more than 1600 people directly employed in the marine sector, with the potential to reach 23,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2023.

 

Wave and tidal power is one of the most popular forms of energy with Government studies regularly showing three quarters support for the technology.

 

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