The government’s decision to award about 100 new licences for offshore oil and gas drilling is a welcome move towards addressing the UK’s energy shortfall, and the announcement of a major carbon capture initiative is a significant step on the road to developing technological solutions to address environmental concerns.
The UK’s energy problem is that it needs abundant and affordable energy, while simultaneously meeting environmental concerns. The government wishes to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, while building up renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, and building up non-polluting nuclear power. There is a problem, in that while renewables are reducing in cost, they are still much more expensive than their fossil fuel alternatives, especially due to Britain’s lack of storage capacity.
Although people publicly express support for policies designed to reduce the energy environmental impact, their revealed preferences differ from their expressed preferences. It seems that they still want affordable transport, and the ability to heat their homes in winter and cool them in summer. This suggests that promotion of, and reliance on, behavioural change will not be sufficient to address the problem, and that more attention should be paid to increasing supply, rather than to reducing demand.
The energy supply can be a diversified mix of different sources. This diversification can include a combination of renewable energy, nuclear power, and cleaner fossil fuel technologies such as natural gas with carbon capture and storage. By diversifying its energy sources, the country can enhance energy security while reducing environmental impacts.
It makes environmental sense to phase out the most polluting sources first. Coal pollutes more than oil, which pollutes more than gas. This suggests that gas could be the bridge to maintain the supply until lower cost renewables can be developed and rolled out alongside nuclear power.
Increasing the nuclear proportion of the energy mix is important, since it is clean, reliable, and not dependent on foreign suppliers. The UK nuclear proportion is 15%, compared to France’s 75%. Since nuclear power plants, even SMRs, take time and great expense to plan, build and go on-line, gas is the obvious bridge until the UK reaches that point.
There is a treasure trove of natural gas beneath us, and the technology in the shape of hydraulic fracturing to access it. The government caved in before environmental lobbyists and set the tremor limit far too low to make it viable. Any tremor over 0.5ML [local magnitude] on the Richter scale requires fracking to stop and testing and monitoring to commence. Some commentators have pointed out that this corresponds to a lorry passing by in the street, or a cat jumping off a wardrobe in the next room.
Dr Brian Baptie, of the British Geological Survey (BGS), and Dr Ben Edwards, of Liverpool University, have argued that the limit could be raised safely to 1.5ML, which, they said, was unlikely to be felt. Politically, this could be implemented if compensation were given to households in the area any time it might be exceeded. It could be a cash sum, or a reduction in fuel bills.
Development of extraction technology should run in parallel to carbon sequestration technology, with awards available for those developing practical techniques for achieving this. In addition, research should be instigated to explore the suggestion that some geologists have made that it might be possible to access parts of the gas field offshore, or from the Isle of Mann, which would probably welcome the extra jobs and opportunities it would bring.
Energy storage has a role to play in handling the intermittent nature of some renewable sources, and a programme to encourage firms to develop the appropriate technologies is yet another item in a co-ordinated, multi-source strategy for ensuring a continued supply of affordable and reliable energy into the future. The use of an interconnector, such as that proposed by Aquind, to link Britain and France, offers the UK 5% of its demand in clean nuclear energy, and the possibility of selling to the European electrical market. It could help achieve our energy needs - if it is permitted to be built.