Renewable energy in the South West – a role for the RSA?

October 12, 2009 by
Filed under: Politics, Public policy, The RSA 

The independent Committee on Climate Change reports that the Government is a long way from having any credible account of how it is going to reach its target of cutting carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. This comes after Professor David MacKay, the Government’s Chief Energy Scientist pointed out last week that the UK exports up to half its energy use through its reliance on imported industrial goods. Meanwhile hardly a week seems to pass without more bad news about the impact of climate change.

These were the issues that provided the backdrop to the Eden Forum which I attended at the end of last week. I wasn’t there for the closing sessions as I wanted to get back for my younger son’s first football match of the season (he won 11-0, as you ask). But a strong view has begun to emerge about the direction the Forum – a collection of environmentalists, politicians and political strategists, writers and business people – might take its future work.  The Forum had heard from community groups based in the South West how hard it still is to cut through the economic and bureaucratic hurdles to micro generation, despite the scope for local energy which exists in that wet and windy part of the country and the incentives the Government has tried to create through Renewable Obligation Certificates.

James Cameron, Executive Director of Climate Change Capital and a long time friend of the RSA, discussed with the Forum the idea of some kind of South West energy bond which could provide much needed capital for putative micro generators of renewable energy, while also offering a decent return to investors as the price attached to energy production and carbon emissions inexorably rises. There are many things that would need to be in place for such a bond to get off the ground. One might be to demonstrate a real commitment to invest among the people of the region.
I don’t know what came out of the last session (maybe someone who was there can add a comment) but if this idea was taken forward could there be a challenge here for RSA Fellows in the South West? Could they use their networks to sign up thousands of local people willing, at least in principle, to become small investors in such a bond (by the way, many small scale example of funds like this exist around the country)? Ultimately, a regional bond will require the backing of major institutional investors but showing that thousands of small investors are committed could be very powerful in getting the backing of bigger funds, Government agencies and energy utilities.

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3 Comments on Renewable energy in the South West – a role for the RSA?

  1. Hadleigh Roberts on Mon, 12th Oct 2009 10:15 am

    2. Don’t mention the Severn Barrage, I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it.

    The ship-workers unions block-vote it down every time.

  2. Tim Daw on Mon, 12th Oct 2009 3:30 pm

    3. It is all very well getting politicians, writers etc on board but the people you really need are the land owners and farmers as most renewables rely on acres to gather the energy.
    By co-incidence I read your blog entry as I was attending a seminar held by the CLA on just this topic http://www.cla.org.uk/In_Your_Area/South_West/Events/107576.htm/ so the interest is there, if you want to know more contact me.

  3. Chris Cook on Tue, 13th Oct 2009 11:04 pm

    4. Interesting coincidence.

    I’m working on a project in the South West to develop two municipally owned wind turbines. The difference from James Cameron’s conventional bond model is that our approach is to finance them by selling units redeemable in energy eg 10 Kilo Watt Hours. Wipes the floor with conventional debt.

    I presented the Energy Pool concept at the Aberdeen All Energy show

    http://www.slideshare.net/ChrisJCook/energy-pool-20-05-2009

    and got a lot of interest – I also gave evidence at the Holyrood parliament’s economy, energy and tourism committee earlier this year.

    What do I know? FWIW I used to be a Director of the International Petroelum Exchange, and I think I know what will work, and what won’t.

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