ENERGY INDEPENDENCE vital, achievable and affordable
Even before the Ukraine war, wholesale gas prices had skyrocketed due to a raft of factors. As most consumers were on fixed price contracts, gas companies were being forced to sell gas to them at less than the wholesale price, meaning they were losing money. As a consequence, many smaller companies went bust. Ecotricty wasn’t one of them and its CEO, Dale Vince, explains why we need energy independence and how we can achieve it.
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t was 20 years ago that I first heard the phrase energy independence – the idea of powering the entire country from our own renewable energy sources – wind, sun and sea – creating vast new industries, truly sustainable jobs and economic strength. Now everyone’s talking about it, even our government. It’s been prompted, of course, by the energy crisis which began last September and has now been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Although prices have remained within the new normal (aka crazy) levels since September, the war has brought an added focus – and the realisation that we depend on some dodgy people and volatile global markets for our energy supplies. Europe teeters on the edge of simply not having what it needs for life as we know it. This was always going to happen at some point in the future if we didn’t transition to renewable energy, as one day, fossil fuels will run out. Bizarrely, energy independence has been hijacked by some to call for yet further reliance on fossil fuels – a return to fracking, squeezing the last drops out of the North Sea and even a return to coal mining. Forgetting the climate crisis for a minute, it makes no sense for many other reasons. Firstly, it doesn’t matter how much oil and gas we
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produce here in the UK, it doesn’t help us financially. Fifty per cent of our gas still comes from the North Sea but that hasn’t saved us a penny during this energy crisis as we’ve been paying up to 10 times the normal price for it. Producers have made approaching £50 billion in windfall profits as a result, money that came from the retail energy sector (you and I) where tens of millions of Briton’s face energy bills they just can’t pay. The government should take that money from fossil fuel producers via a windfall tax and put it back where it came from – but that’s a digression. It also makes no sense because it’s not a long-term solution. The Oil and Gas Authority says the North Sea will be depleted by 2030 – just eight years from now. And if fracking were up and running, it too would be gone by 2030. Doubling down on fossil fuels is kicking the can down the road – but not very far. It will take a decade to get fracking up and running and the average time between exploration and production in the North Sea is 28 years, even if there are new finds. Nuclear has got Boris Johnson’s support but it can take 10 years to plan a nuclear power station and ten more to build it and another 10 before it becomes carbon neutral… oh, and it’s the most expensive electricity ever devised.
