The UK will shortly become a net importer of gas, as the North Sea fields which have given us over 20 years of self-sufficiency finally begin to run dry; production is decreasing so that we are now a net importer, rather than a net exporter. The recent attempt by the Russian Government, Europe's major gas supplier, to hike the price of the gas it supplies to neighbouring Ukraine (the first step on the pipeline route to Western Europe) has led to intense media speculation over the security of supplies to the UK - in effect the argument is that since we cannot rely on a stable supply of gas, we should press ahead with a new generation of nuclear power plants which would guarantee energy security.
We believe that there are serious flaws in this misleading argument, and that in fact it amounts to scaremongering by supporters of the nuclear industry. Over the next decade the bulk of these gas imports will be from Norway and the Netherlands, not from Russia. Only around 30% of gas supplies are currently used for electricity generation - most of the gas in the UK is used for space and water heating - the primary (non transport) energy need in the UK. So nuclear power is not the solution to the security of gas supply problem - if indeed it is a problem.
If Tony Blair and the government are really serious about improving the security of our energy supply, the best way to do that would be to improve energy efficiency in the wasteful electricity system which wastes two-thirds of the energy it uses - the equivalent of two-thirds of current North Sea gas production every year. They also need to improve the energy efficiency of UK buildings, homes and factories which are among the poorest in Europe and which waste a third of their energy. The Government should promote the rapid uptake of decentralised energy - using energy where it is produced eliminates much of the waste produced by our outmoded and antiquated electricity system and means that dedicated renewable heating technologies like solar thermal and heat pumps can move to mass market offsetting the need for gas-fired heating. 50% of UK CO2 comes from energy use in buildings, so a move to decentralised generation and the increased use sustainable sources of heat and power could potentially halve UK CO2 emissions.
Read the Greenpeace report 'Decentralising Power: an energy revolution for the 21st century'.
Download the summary (pdf) or the the full report (pdf, 5Mb).
