We definitely do face an energy crisis in this country – a crisis of supply on the one hand and environmental dangers on the other – but the fundamental reason is that the energy industry is not safe in the hands of big business.
In the late 80’s and early 90’s, the Tories privatised all three aspects of the energy sector – resources, power plants and distribution. They did it to allow big business to make huge profits out of the demand for energy in this country (in other words, out of us) and, of course, they couldn’t guarantee those profits without breaking the power of the unions at the same time – particularly the NUM.
Privatisation has had a number of effects. In the past, the Central Electricity Generating Board kept enough back-up capacity at power plants to deal with periods of high demand. But back-up capacity means additional costs – and the new private companies naturally wanted to keep costs down.
Since privatisation, power plant closures and lack of investment have meant bigger and bigger profits for the private energy companies. But for the rest of us, they’ve meant the threat of power shortages and continually rising energy costs. Over all, the price Britain pays for energy is up 60% from a year ago and double what it was two years ago. And even the CBI warned last autumn we could face energy shortages this past winter.
There’ve been other serious effects, as well. Big business has failed completely to invest seriously in developing new energy technology. They’ve diversified into the renewables, but only on an extremely small scale – only enough to make sure that they could sweep up any profits going.
The reasons are clear. Big business needs short term gains. That makes them less willing to invest in long-term research. They’re happy to add a few windfarms – and maybe a hydro plant – to their portfolios, but they’re not prepared to put in the money to develop some of the most innovative new green energy ideas.
A prime example was the U.K.’s only electricity storage R&D project, based at two major U.K. power stations. Now, electricity storage is the holy grail of renewables research. You can store coal, oil or gas, but when it comes to electricity storage, you’ve only got batteries. You can’t store electricity in any great quantities. If you could, all the world’s energy needs could be met cleanly and pollution free – from solar panels at the equator and the electricity could be exported all over the world.
That’s what this UK-based R&D project was all about – and they’d actually got to the demonstration plant stage, when the project was wound up. The European company that owns the power plants wanted quicker returns on their money. So, they built a hydro plant in the U.S.A., instead. They still got to look green – but by using old technology. And they dropped a project was on the verge of a breakthrough that could have changed energy generation for the entire world – as long as the company was prepared to keep spending the money to see it through.
But, there’s another issue, as well. Green energy is never going to be as profitable as the dirty energy industries. Compare the profits from long lasting solar panels to the money to be made selling gas and oil, every day.
So, with the private energy companies, we aren’t seeing the investment that needs to be made, if we’re going to save the world from global warming on the one hand and the dangers of the nuclear industry on the other. Our future is simply not safe in the hands of big business.
I.G.C.C. Clean Coal Technology has an important role to play both from the point of view of security of supply and in giving us Zero Emissions green energy.
IGCC doesn’t just give us electricity for the grid. It also produces spare hydrogen. In that way, IGCC plants lay the basis for a hydrogen economy – a world where “trains, planes and automobiles” can run on emissions-free hydrogen fuel cells. Not only a world without CO2 emissions, but a world without air pollution.
IGCC Clean Coal plants are already up and running in America and Europe – and Rekyavik already runs its bus system on hydrogen fuel cells. New York has a few hydrogen buses running, as well. New “hydrogen sponge” technology – based on the element palladium – means that hydrogen-cell-only cars could soon be a reality, as well.
The trouble is that IGCC plants are currently more expensive than conventional plants, not wildly expensive – nothing like nuclear – but perhaps 15% more expensive in terms of operating costs and efficiency. And that’s a big deterrent to private industry, except where there’s a military spinoff for government, like there is with nuclear power.
There’s an IGCC plant planned for Hatfield in Yorkshire. There’s another one on the cards for Onllwyn in South Wales, though that one’s on hold at the moment. But there’s nothing like the turn to IGCC and the Zero Emissions Hydrogen Energy Economy that there should be, if security of supply and green energy are top of the agenda.
That comes down purely and simply to the priorities of private companies. Our energy future shouldn’t be trusted to the greed of big business and the chaotic operation of the market.
We wouldn’t have an energy shortfall if our energy generation and distribution industries weren’t in private hands – and Blair’s nuclear plans wouldn’t even get a hearing. Renationalisation should be at the heart of the debates on bridging the energy gap and creating a sustainable green energy policy.