Update energy.md

Proposer
moeden
State

Rejected

Vote Score

0

Age

3447 days


@moeden edited manifesto/energy.md - over 9 years ago

Decarbonisation

We will aim to decarbonise the electricity supply by 2030, through a combination of renewable generation and new nuclear power (including alternative nuclear generation methods such as Thorium power). Fossil fuel plants will be allowed to operate only if capturing 100% of their carbon emissions using CCS technology.

We will aim to decarbonise the electricity supply by 2030, through a comprehensive UK-wide programme of energy efficiency and renewable generation. New nuclear power stations are extremely expensive and unresponsive to demand, and are therefore not part of the new energy scenario.

Energy storage will form a significant part of the UK's R&D activity in the sector, and existing R&D programmes for the nuclear industry will be wound down or redirected towards battery and hydrogen technologies.

Resilience and Self-Sufficiency

We will ensure that energy is generated from a mixture of UK and EU supplies by working towards the EU-wide DC supergrid. All non-EU supplies of energy will be minimised and eventually stopped in order to protect the UK from foreign coercion, or from incentivising an expeditionary foreign policy.

Green Power for the Public Sector

In order to stimulate the renewable power sector, all public sector organisations and National Infrastructure Organisations will be required to buy as much of their power as possible from zero-carbon sources, with a target to reach 100% as soon as possible.

Buy Back Scheme

Putting in place longer term, fixed rate energy buy back schemes will help the small scale, "do-it-yourself" renewable market flourish.

A longer term fixed rate buy back will also allow more people to get finance for installations on or near their homes.

In order to stimulate the renewable power sector, all public sector organisations and National Infrastructure Organisations will be required to buy as much of their power as possible from zero-carbon sources, with a target to reach 100% by 2020.

Remove confusing limitations currently in place about installations not created by accredited organisations to help individuals and small businesses get started.

Feed in Tariff

Simplify buy back rates so that solar, wind, hydro and all other renewables share the same fixed tariff so as not to discriminate against any one technology.

Continuation of the Feed in Tariff, and the Renewable Heat Incentive. Strong focus on community involvement and participation, with a presumption in favour in the planning system for projects which have a greater than 50% legal ownership.

Fossil Fuel Industry

Forbid new fossil fuel extraction in the UK (such as oil drilling, fracking, or coal mining), except for non-combustion industrial purposes such as production of plastics or pharmaceuticals.

A complete moratorium on fracking, and tapered decreasing tax incentives for fossil fuel extraction.

moeden

@moeden - over 9 years ago

It's my first ever edit on GitHub, so apologies if I've done it wrong, and massive thanks to OpenPolitics for making this project possible.

mikera

@mikera - over 9 years ago

Nuclear power remains our best chance of a clean and green energy future. There is mountains of evidence on this... We need to see past the highly irrational anti-nuclear sentiment

mikera

@mikera - over 9 years ago

I'd much rather see a strong commitment to nuclear as a way to phase out fossil fuels for baseload power generation. "Responsive to demand" isn't a good argument against nuclear... There will always be baseload requirements

moeden

@moeden - over 9 years ago

Hi Mike,

We have different opinions about nuclear - nothing wrong with that. The beauty about the Open Politics manifesto is that we can have any number of energy views, and I presume (!) the most popular will be adopted.

Good luck with your vision.

2014-10-22 4:53 GMT+01:00 Mike Anderson [email protected]:

I'd much rather see a strong commitment to nuclear as a way to phase out fossil fuels for baseload power generation. "Responsive to demand" isn't a good argument against nuclear... There will always be baseload requirements

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/openpolitics/manifesto/pull/245#issuecomment-60033394 .

Floppy

@Floppy - over 9 years ago

Hi @moeden, thanks for the contribution, it's done just right! I'm personally pro-nuclear, and in fact would say that the blanket word "nuclear" is unhelpful as it covers a variety of different technologies. Some have the drawbacks you point out, and some don't, so I wouldn't want to include a blanket statement like this. I wonder if we could split this edit into two or three different ones, as it's changing a number of clauses, and it will be easier to vote on them separately. Would you be willing to have a go at that?

moeden

@moeden - over 9 years ago

Thanks @Floppy, I'll do as you suggest. In fact, I'm hoping to put some considerable (!) time into this as energy is a personal and professional interest, so I'll make each 'point' a separate edit for ease of voting.

Floppy

@Floppy - over 9 years ago

That's perfect, just because people will vote different ways on different things.

philipjohn

@philipjohn - about 9 years ago

Closing this in anticipation of the aforementioned separate PRs.