Episode 4: Can renewables help local councils beat austerity?
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I want to find out whether the UK’s local authorities could use renewable energy as a means of generating alternative income and protecting vital public services.
To start my investigation, I’m in North West England to talk to Councillor Janet Henshaw of Warrington Borough Council.
The council’s strategy involves investing in solar farms and the cash generated is not only being used to fund green investment but also help compensate for the cuts that have taken place since 2010 in UK central government funding.
Episode 2: Is there a profit problem for renewables?
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In this episode I visit Professor Brett Christophers at Uppsala University in Sweden to delve further into claims he makes in his new book, ‘The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet’.
Professor Christophers argues that there’s a widespread misconception about what’s needed to expand the use of renewable energy and speed the transition away from fossil fuel generation.
He says that while renewables appear to be cheap and getting cheaper, they may not actually be profitable. The point, he says, is that generating costs are only part of the green energy cost equation and there are other major costs involved, notably the high transmission costs of getting renewable energy from where it’s produced to where it’s used.
The upshot is that the transition to renewable energy generation is less rapid than anticipated and may even slow further if the economics become less favourable and investment more unattractive.
He says that while governments expect the private sector to take most of the responsibility for substituting clean for dirty energy, they must take on at least part of this burden by way of public ownership, public financing, or even by compelling private firms to build renewables.
Episode 3: Factory built modular nuclear power stations
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In this episode I meet Alan Woods, the Director of Strategy and Business Development at Rolls Royce SMR which stands for Small Modular Reactors.
Rolls Royce plans to use tried and tested small nuclear reactor technology as the heart of a factory built series of standardised modules which can be transported by road and then rapdily assembled into complete working power stations. It’s an approach in sharp contrast to existing nuclear plants which are built on site and face delays due to weather and many other variables which can all contribute to rising costs.
If it gets government approval, Rools Royce will build at least one SMR a year, each costing £2.8 billion and able to generate 470 Megawatts of electricity, enough to power a city the size of Leeds, or over 60,000 electric cars.
Can we avoid conflict between local residents, developers, landowners and farmers?
In this opening episode of Road2Zero we take a look at one major consequence of decarbonising the electricity supply – this is the growing number of applications to construct utility scale solar farms in the countryside.
A typical example of this is Woolpots Solar Farm which is located in North Yorkshire next to the North York Moors National Park and the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Following that we look into two of the issues raised by such developments. Firstly, are there better places to locate solar power facilities than on productive agricultural land? We talk to Professor Mark Barrett of University College London.
Secondly, is there a better process for selecting sites for solar farms which averts conflict between developers, local communities and farmers? We talk to Chris Stratton OBE, an experienced land use planner.
