Comment & Analysis
When the Department for Energy and Climate Change announced the launch of a £6 million funding programme for the development of district heating and cooling networks across the UK, I was relieved. Energy policy in the UK often plays to the tune of ‘one step forward, two steps backwards’, so to have some clear and undoubtedly positive direction from the government was welcome in my eyes. This is particularly true in light of the recent furore over energy prices; the initiative offers one method through which communities can take some of the power back (no pun intended) from the main energy companies by decentralising their supply. If we are to have a fair and competitive energy industry, Minister for Energy and Climate Change Greg Barker is right to say that ‘the Big Six need to become the Big 60,000’.
Over the next 18 months, local authorities will have the opportunity to bid for a slice of the new funding to go towards the design of projects that translate into real energy, cost and carbon savings. We’re not at the front of the pack here, either: elsewhere in the world, district heating schemes are already de rigueur. For example, Iceland has recognised the potential held within the vast stores of geothermal energy under its surface and has built a heating network that provides sustainable and low-cost heat to the majority of the country’s residents.
Obviously, the UK’s geography is somewhat different and we sadly don’t have access to the same low-hanging fruit. This obstacle, coupled with the high up-front cost of installing networks that are properly insulated and fully functional, goes some way towards explaining why district heating hasn’t taken off thus far in quite the same manner as it has abroad. What we do have, however, is a desperate need to up the ante in terms of our domestic energy production. As nice as it would be to have free energy ready for use on our doorstep, we’ve got to look at other options and, sadly, other options aren’t cheap.
There is light at the end of the tunnel: combined heat and power (CHP) plants are designed to minimise heat loss throughout the process of creating electricity by recapturing and channeling it, thereby making it an ideal candidate for district heating. Waste to energy plants also present an opportunity for councils to reduce their waste sent to landfill by recycling it instead. This holds the double benefit of helping them towards reaching the EU target of a 50% recycling rate by 2020. Clean gasification is a separate class from traditional incineration methods; it’s the way forward for waste to energy, and although there are still some who still protest against it, gasification plants should be recognised for the important role they can have in supporting communities. The £6 million development fund will go a long way to getting more of these schemes off the ground.
So where did the substantial sums of money that will facilitate this new stage in the low-carbon transition come from? Well that’s a pertinent question. District heating is in fact one of the primary targets of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), which will ring bells to anyone who has been looking at the national press in recent weeks. The levy is one of several to be lambasted for contributing to rising energy costs, and Prime Minister David Cameron has now announced his intentions to ‘scale back’ on this and other green taxes. UK corporations have rallied against this move, as it is sure to leave the nation further up the creek in years to come with no sign of a paddle when import costs continue to rise, domestic gas continues to dwindle, and there is nothing left in the money pot to sort the mess out.
Instead of cutting chunks out of our future energy security and pandering to the kneejerk reactions of those who haven’t given long term implications a second thought, the Government should be channeling support to the initiatives that will offer stability when dashing for gas is no longer an option.
Peter Rolton is chairman of the Rolton Group, a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy based near Kettering, Nothamptonshire. Recent clients include Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover, Crown Estates, The Ministry of Defence and Ikea.
Originally trained as a building services engineer, he is responsible for the Group's energy and built environment work. He frequently works with companies to develop renewable energy and sustainability strategies and served as an adviser to the UK Government for four years as a member of the Renewables Advisory Board.
His blog on energy and industry can be found at http://www.rolton.com/blog.