Energy crisis in Britain
By Molly Webb, Head of Smart Technologies, The Climate Group.
In the Economist article from 6th August "How long til the lights go out?" Britain (and New Labour) is blamed for bad planning. How will the country meet it's energy requirements (64GW) in 2015?
After the recent renewable energy report from the UK government, and a swathe of articles on smart grid and smart meters, I wonder why the article doesn't mention:
- How renewable supply increase if planning laws don't allow for large scale wind and solar to be developed quickly?
- Where is smart grid in this article? Aren't we looking to the smart grid to help better predict demand and reduce it through energy efficiency along the distribution network as well as in the home?
As difficult as it is to look at what seems to be the inevitable increase in energy demand within the wider context of climate change, the Economist seemed to do just this in their last paragraph recommending a carbon price, but fail to connect to the ongoing debates about renewables and smart grid.