The Solution: An Energy Revolution

Generating energy near to its point of use and using heat as well as power is cheaper, more secure and cleaner than nuclear power - and it's already working in several countries today.

Compare and contrast:

Now guess which one the government’s planning to support?
Tony Blair and the nuclear industry are busily positioning nuclear power as the answer to climate change. But nuclear power, like coal, oil and gas, relies on an antiquated energy model that is intrinsically inflexible, insecure, expensive and wasteful.
This model was born in 1926, with the idea of a “national gridiron”. While society and technology have changed at breakneck speed over the past 80 years, the energy model has stood stock still: a few large power stations still generate electricity that is distributed, via the national grid, to consumers hundreds of miles away from where it is produced.
Because the model is centralised, it’s vulnerable to wide-scale system failure in the face of an attack or a natural catastrophe. It’s also highly inefficient; 60% of total energy going into a power station – whether it’s fuelled by coal, oil, gas or nuclear – is wasted as heat. Another 7% is lost as the electricity travels along the distribution system. In all, two-thirds of all energy going into a power station is wasted:


This model for producing electricity is the largest single contributor to climate change in the UK, responsible for one-third of our CO2 emissions.
Enter the energy revolution:
Imagine a system in which electricity is produced near where it used. Individual buildings – residential, commercial and industrial – stop being just consumers of energy and start generating it. Whether through solar panels, wind turbines or combined heat and power units, buildings start generating electricity for use by the local community.
Any heat produced when generating electricity is channelled through underground networks to heat local buildings; minimal energy is lost as waste heat, or in transmission. Regions become increasingly self-sufficient. Being diverse, the electricity supply is far less vulnerable to massive failure or attack. Householders, local councils and local communities can act to stop climate change, transforming the way society thinks about energy production and use.
Sound unrealistic? Actually, more than 1,000 UK hospitals, leisure centres and homes already use decentralised energy and utilities systems. Woking Borough Council has reduced emissions by 77% through use of renewable technologies and its own local grid. In the Netherlands, 40% of electricity is created using decentralised systems. In Finland, 98% of Helsinki is heated by community heat networks.
And how much does it cost? In the long run, it will cost us less than the current wasteful systems – and less than investing in a new generation of nuclear reactors, as Blair wants to do. As decentralised energy models are adopted and the market for renewable technologies is boosted across the country and throughout Europe, costs will continue to decrease.
Our current centralised system of electricity generation severely limits the way useful energy is produced and delivered. Decentralised energy systems have been pushed out of the market by short-sighted regulations, obsessed by low price with little regard for long term value and Tony Blair’s obsession with pleasing big business.

Take action!
Tony Blair’s Energy Review is looking at the UK’s long-term energy policy. Write to your MP to say no to nuclear and yes to efficiency and renewables.

Find out more
·  Watch the energy revolution slideshow to see decentralised energy in action.
·  Read about Greenpeace's vision on Decentralising Power.
·  Find out how decentralised energy could work for London and the UK.
·  Read a case study on Woking.