Prime Minister Gordon Brown reassured the wind energy industry yesterday that the “difficult” global economic situation will not dampen the government’s commitment to cleaner energy.
Speaking via video link at the first day of the BWEA 30 exhibition and conference in London yesterday, Mr Brown dismissed the suggestion that the Credit Crunch will see Britain stepping back from its climate change goals.
The Prime Minister said: “You may have heard some people say that these difficult economic times should or will reduce the government’s commitment to building a low carbon economy. They should not and will not.
“On the contrary, the investment and jobs we will create from our commitment to low carbon energy is one of the drivers that will bring us prosperity,” Mr Brown added.
During his short address, the Prime Minister hailed the UK’s achievement of installing 3GW of renewable energy as of this week.
He insisted that the government’s Renewable Energy Strategy would lead to the creation of 160,000 jobs, despite recent industry estimates putting the more likely figure closer to 40,000 in the UK itself.
Rising prices
Meanwhile, the opening session of the BWEA30 event at the ExCeL exhibition centre also saw the British Wind Energy Association keen to distance the sector from talk of responsibility for rising domestic electricity prices this year.
“These comments from the touchline are not helpful,” said BWEA chairman Adam Bruce. “The Renewables Obligation and the Emissions Trading Scheme are not responsible for the rising price of domestic electricity. Large amounts of wind energy in countries where they have installed it drives down the cost of domestic electricity.
“They and us and you are a hedge against rising energy prices. All this will reduce – not increase – the continuing risk to UK consumers,” Mr Bruce insisted.
The BWEA chairman, who is also head of sustainable development at Scottish and Southern Energy and was chief executive of wind developer Airtricity prior to its acquisition by his present employers earlier this year, said it was true that capital expenditure costs were rising for wind power, but that this was the same for new coal, new gas and new nuclear developments.
“In wind, fuel costs are zero,” he went on. “This year the price of gas has spiked at
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