decentralised energy

Update (15/10/2007): Our video interview with Pete Bradshaw of Man City FC is now included:

And there's a podcast from the event on BusinessAssurance.com.

I've been an avid (my friends might say evangelical) fan of decentralised energy ever since I first got my head around it. When I started working for Greenpeace, the organisation was in full swing on a decentralised energy campaign and part of my job was to communicate what it is and why it can do so much more than nuclear to combat climate change.

There have followed 20 months (for me) of virtual shouting from the rooftops. Films have been produced; countless blogs have been written; submissions have been made to energy reviews and audit committees; our campaigners and policy boffins have met with government representatives; dozens of volunteers have visited MPs; many thousands more have written to theirs.

Manchester was at the heart of the industrial revolution. Now it could take the lead in the next energy revolution. While national energy policy flounders, towns and local authorities can do an enormous amount to achieve the emissions reductions we so urgently need.

So, as part of a series of nationwide events, we're hosting an evening of discussion (and the regional launch of our film, The Convenient Solution) at Manchester City FC – soon to be the first UK sports stadium to be powered by its own 85m wind turbine.

Bad energy: inefficient centralised energy generation is a major contributor to global warming

Over the next decade, Britain needs to invest tens of billions on renewing its dilapidated energy infrastructure. Many of our current nuclear, coal and gas power stations will close, and the electricity transmission and distribution grids themselves will need replacement.

Which provides us with a once-in-a-generation chance for the government to redesign our energy market. We have the perfect opportunity to go for maximum environmental efficiency, whilst ensuring energy security and reliability of supply.

We can shout from the rooftops that nuclear power won't stop climate change and decentralised energy is the way forward; we can produce investigations into what it is, how it can apply to the UK and how much it will all cost; we can write case studies about how it's already being used; we can lobby government to sort out the regulatory framework and the energy markets so that decentralised energy is on a level footing with other forms of energy production; we can ask you to write to your MP to help spread the word.

Update (09/04/2008): The Convenient Solution has been chosen as an Official Honoree in the Public Service and Activism category The 12th Annual Webby Awards.

A short film about climate change and energy

We all know that, to stop climate change, we need to stop burning fossil fuels. The government says we need nuclear power to do this. Our new film explains why nuclear power can’t stop climate change – and lays down a better, cheaper, more convenient solution:

Right-click on these links and select 'Save link as...' to download the film as a Quicktime (30MB) or Windows Media (27MB) file.

Convinced? Find out what you can do to make sure the UK gets a genuinely clean and efficient energy system.

Not convinced yet? Read on.

The single biggest use of fossil fuels in the UK isn't for electricity or for transport, but for creating heat to warm our buildings and power our industrial processes. So any solution to climate change needs to contribute to heating, as well as to electricity generation.

Nuclear power contributes almost nothing to our enormous heating requirements. In fact it contributes less than four per cent to our overall energy needs. And building new nuclear power stations (as the government wants to do) won't increase that share.

So what is the solution? Well, in the same amount of time and for less money, we could implement an energy system that will do far more to stop climate change and ensure energy security than nuclear power: a combination of renewable energy, efficiency, and combined heat and power: