Green energy is happening

It is easy to claim that alternatives to fossil and nuclear will never work, just as people thought we would never land on the moon

Shortly after Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth, I asked my mother if men would land on the moon. “No.” she said, “They never will”. 

The following month, Kennedy committed the USA to do exactly that. However, one question she asked back then that is still relevant is “What are we going to do when we run out of oil?”. In 2008, I heard Lord Oxburgh, former chairman of Shell, say that: gas ran out in about 40 years; oil in 60 years; coal in 160 years; and nuclear in 200 years. While the figures may need updating, the order of magnitude will not change much.

It is easy to be a greenophobe and claim that alternatives to fossil and nuclear (F&N) will never work just as people thought we would never land on the moon. No greenophobe ever offers a vision of what we do when there is no more F&N. Serious people that give consideration to energy policy include the wonderfully named Professor Dame Sue Ion (pronounced Eon), who is primarily a nuclear engineer and a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering. On 4 May 2010, The Engineer magazine quoted her as saying: "In a 21st century industrialised urban society we will always need a significant amount of centralised generation while renewables are being built. There has been a lack of consulting with engineers in the past on this issue and that needs to start happening."

She advocates an energy mix of F&N and green sources, but, I think, recognises ultimately we have no choice but to use green sources exclusively. My personal view is that we should move to green as soon as possible and leave as much F&N in the ground as we can.

I am with Ellie van der Heijden, who reported being “...confronted by older gentlemen introducing themselves as ‘Engineers’. In a similar fashion to authors of many letters to PE, these gentleman then go on to state a string of inaccuracies and falsehoods about wind turbine efficiency...” in letters in PE in February 2013. To them, I would quote Clement Attlee’s rebuke to Harold Laski: “You have no right whatever to speak on behalf of the Government. Foreign affairs are in the capable hands of Ernest Bevin. His task is quite sufficiently difficult without the irresponsible statements of the kind you are making ... I can assure you there is widespread resentment in the Party at your activities and a period of silence on your part would be welcome.”

Go away and in your silence reflect on how you are going to solve the problem of running out of F&N and stop denigrating green energy as you are out of step with the real thinking in the profession and are damaging it. Green energy is happening, it is realistic and it will continue, not stop; get used to it.

Rob Farman

Next letter: Changing goal posts