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A New Dash for Gas is Needed



Labour would be committing political suicide if they continued with their previous green Agenda.



Tony Blair was wrong about committing the UK, under the auspices of a European Green Energy dictate, to a 15% renewable energy target by 2020, and then setting a Government Act of 20% renewable energy by 2020 under the then energy minister Ed Milliband.



Just what is it about politicians that they spout forth such utter rubbish founded on myths without looking fully at the reality of issues and implications that confronts them? They are simply not making any clear judgements about renewable energy and certainly cannot be basing any decisions on real scientific or economic facts.



George Osborne is right to say they we have to look at the cost implications of having such a green agenda and how that will implicate the UK in a very competitive world in relation to our manufacturing success. He should also have ask what are the full carbon savings issues related to the continued developments of wind turbines. The facts are glaringly obvious that as more wind-turbines are installed, the more the main generating plant has to be deloaded or shut down. This results in them becoming less efficient and cause increases in carbon emissions plus there is the double capacity factor and increased transmission network requirements which all cause additions to the carbon footprint and energy wastage.



There is no way that we can continue to achieve an actual reduction in carbon emission target by building more and more wind-turbines. It is a 'make-believe' false target because the more wind-turbines we build the true carbon emission savings are reducing and therefore the cost of each kg of carbon reduction is increasingly and the cost per kg will increase to infinity. I believe that the 20% carbon reduction target is factually not achievable if all carbon footprint factors are taken account of.



The UK has to go for the 'dash for gas', new combined cycle gas turbines, because we cannot build any other electricity generating power stations quickly enough in the timescales available to meet the countries electricity demands over the next ten years. These highly efficient, very flexible and clean gas-fired power stations are an absolute must to ensure the electricity demand is met on the coldest winter days when there is no wind. Many conventional power plants are being forced to close earlier than their normal life expectancy because of the false European carbon emission reduction targets. Ironically, this is the best method to achieve an overall reduction in carbon emissions and if they run on shale gas then we would be utilizing the lowest cost abundant fuel currently on the world market. Longer term, if new nuclear power stations are built, the carbon emissions overall could be significantly reduced.



The 'dash-for-gas' has become 'a must do policy' in the short-term, otherwise the lights will really go out when the conventional power plants become time expired or forced to close because of stupid European Laws on climate change.



It is time that the UK Government commissioned an unbiased analysis on the full issues of an Electrical Power System for "With" and "Without" wind-turbines and a mixture of both, particularly with the low cost alternative of very clean highly efficient gas-fired power stations. We need to start building 40 GW of CCGT’s and 20GW of nuclear now and cease all further developments of wind-turbines immediately.



The Government should call a moratorium on any further wind-turbine developments as a matter of urgency and initiate sound judgement by carrying out an independent, unbiased study to demonstrate that they are doing the right thing. This would be correct policy making for our country. It is sheer madness for our country to continue going blindly forward committing the nation to huge electricity costs without an accurate scientific and economic analysis.



George Wood, ex-Grid Controller








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