Why BBC's Panorama got it wrong on Green Energy

BBC's Panorama suggested that green energy is pushing your bills up. They were wrong. Our Chair Tony Juniper explains why.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Panorama (TV Series)
• Green Energy
• Energy Bills
• Global
• Warming
• Climate
• Change
• Environment
• Environmentalism
• Power
• Wind
• Electricity
• Solar

[HorzaPanda]

@greenheatman I've got a friend in doing a mini-project on how common those sort of events are (entire country without wind that is), should be interesting to see the results.

[greenheatman]

@HorzaPanda

Are you actually suggesting that we 'back up' intermittent generation with other intermittent generation? You should familiarise yourself the coincident null theory which states that any group of intermittent resources will always produce coincident nulls.

for example, take solar, tidal stream and wind, during the night the tide will stop twice and there is a good chance that the wind will not be blowing anywhere in the country if there is an anticyclone dominating the weather.

[HorzaPanda]

@Joe90V I would say not quite yet, but yeah, we really need to get our collective thumbs out of arses as a species and do something about it :/

That said, this sort of change is hard to make, especially with the lobbying power of fossil fuel that is much more interested in their short term profits than the long term viability of this planet as a place for human life :/

[HorzaPanda]

@greenheatman Not entirely true, whilst wind farms only produce something like 20% of their "maximum" energy potential (that would be if we had perfect wind speeds all year round), with a diverse enough range of locations and types of rewewables they should be able to back each other up.

[greenheatman]

I think that the BBC are right and do not go far enough - real time generation from renewables is a seriously flawed option because they all rely on fossil backup for upt 80% of the year - and fossil fuels are running out fast.

How effective are existing renewable without ANY fossil or nuclear backup - Answer is Not Very

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@HarveyM8 'Fuk' atomic power!!!!!

[gingashields]

A formal complaint to the BBC should be made about the Panorama programme - I was screaming at the television in indignation when watching it.  DECC also needs severely to be criticised for its increasing bias against renewables - although I am sure that this cannot possibly have anything to do with the number of 'unpaid' interns on contracts with the Big Six currently seconded to DECC.

[HarveyM8]

@Yurrzem46 After the disaster in Japan? Thank f***k this wont be an option anymore!!!!

[derfeluk]

Sadly, I think that the real issue that no one is prepared to face up to, is that the Western fossil fuel based economies have to massively contract and to reduce its reliance on energy.

This will mean we all have to face real cuts in present day standard of living, using that extra cardigan to keep warm and not expecting tomatoes all year round.

Green energy sources are great in principle and are to be encouraged but the facts are that energy prices will continue to rise!

[hots4]

The BBC is systematically biased against renewables and in favour of nuclear power. This is transparently a ludicrous position to take. The nuclear industry has always lied about its true costs. Nuclear power has always been very, very expensive and it's not getting any cheaper, indeed the reverse. Renewable costs are falling all the time and the more we invest in renewables, the faster they will go. This is the way of the future! Who is pulling the BBC's puppet strings?