Update (2008): Visit our virtual town, EfficienCity, to see decentralised energy in action.
Turning everyday buildings into power stations could slash UK carbon emissions by at least 15%
Britain's homes and workplaces would become mini-power stations generating huge amounts of electricity and making the UK the leading nation in the fight against climate change, if the vision laid out in a new report becomes reality.
The current, outdated electricity system is so inefficient that two-thirds of the energy in the fuel is wasted before it gets used at homes and workplaces, according to the report released today by Greenpeace.
The huge loss of energy, enough to heat all the buildings and all the water in the UK, occurs because the large power stations far from our cities that make our electricity discard an enormous amount of heat through chimneys, while more power is lost transporting the energy long distances through power lines.
The report, Decentralising Power: An Energy Revolution For The 21st Century, argues that a reform of the electricity system is urgently needed to end this environmentally destructive wastage - the power sector is the single greatest contributor to carbon dioxide emissions. The solution is to generate electricity close to where it is needed, or 'decentralise' it.
A decentralised energy system would see everyday buildings playing host to devices such as solar panels, small wind turbines and combined heat and power boilers, which generate electricity as well as providing heat and hot water. The electricity created would be used directly by the house or workplace, and the surplus would be fed into a local network. This electricity would then be locally distributed, avoiding the significant loss that occurs when electricity is transported long distances.
The combined contribution of these devices could be enormous. For example, if half the houses in the UK had combined heat and power boilers, this would generate as much electricity as current nuclear power plants. It would also save householders on average £50 a year.
In addition to the power devices embedded in buildings, there would be a network of community scale generation plants close to the point of demand. For example, this could include district combined heat and power plants, generating power and also providing heating and cooling for nearby communities. In the short term most of these would be gas-fired, but capturing the heat would mean that the gas was being used far more efficiently than in large gas-fired power stations.
The use of a decentralised system, with its much improved efficiency coupled with the fact that it is more suited to hosting renewable energy, means that the UK's global warming emissions created by power generation could be at least halved. This would reduce overall carbon emissions by at least 15%.
Since switching to such a system, Woking Borough Council has slashed its emissions of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, by almost 80%. And Holland meets 40% of national electricity demand through decentralised energy.
Stephen Tindale, Greenpeace's Executive Director, said: "A deranged industrialist would find it tough to develop a more wasteful way of producing energy than the current method.
"With 150,000 people dying every year because of climate change, there is an urgent need to cut emissions, and decentralised energy is the way forward. The government seems intent on using nuclear power as the solution to global warming, but this report shows where the real energy revolution lies."
For more information, contact the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.
Download the summary of Decentralising Power: An Energy Revolution For The 21st Century
To order printed copies of the summary, contact cathy.hoste@uk.greenpeace.org
Download the full report (5Mb, 74 pages)
