Climate and Environment
Fossil fuel licences are bad news
Conservatives and Labour both fail to stand up against vested interests.
8 Aug 2023
Cornwall needs an Energy Action Plan
16 Aug 2023
The Government has announced bans on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars (including hybrids) and on new gas and oil boilers by 2035, with a target for the UK’s electricity supply to be completely free of fossil fuels by that same date. This will require a huge increase in the amount of energy coming from either renewables or nuclear power stations. The cost of nuclear power only ever seems to get higher, while the cost of wind and solar (which are already the cheapest forms of electricity) continue to fall.
But last week Cornwall Council rejected a planning application for a solar farm because it was on “the wrong kind of farmland”. Previous applications have been rejected for being “too close to an area of outstanding natural beauty”. New onshore wind farms were virtually banned in 2015 by the Conservative Government and even when suitable sites are identified, it can take years to get a connection to the grid.
Connections can also be a problem for those wanting to use clean electricity: For example, the public EV charging points at Trerulefoot were installed in 2021, but weren’t properly connected to the grid until 2023. A development of 47 affordable homes is being built in Lostwithiel with gas boilers instead of electric heat pumps because National Grid wanted to charge over £150,000 for the grid connection!
Clearly Cornwall needs a “Local Area Energy Plan” to find the right sites for renewables and to build the connections necessary to deliver that power to where it will be used. The good news is that Cornwall Council has now received funding to produce such a plan. The first step is to hear from Cornwall’s residents, businesses and visitors about how you’d like to see energy being used in the future (e.g. electric cars, better public transport, electrified home heating, electric boats, electric planes, electrified industry etc). Question two is where would you like that energy to be produced? Rooftop solar? Onshore wind farms? Solar canopies in car parks? Which types of fields are OK for solar farms and which are not? How much should we depend on nuclear power from outside Cornwall?
Finally, once we’ve identified how and where we’d like our energy to be produced and consumed, the Local Area Energy Plan will spell out how our electricity grid needs to be upgraded to make this possible.
It is really important for as many people as possible to take part in this process, so please get involved and encourage your friends, families and colleagues to do likewise. Public events will be held in Saltash (The Core, Sep 12th) and Bodmin (Chy Trevail, Sep 25th) and an online survey is available now at letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/laep
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