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Tag Archives: renewable energy

Welsh Liberal Democrat Conference – Calls for a New ‘Celtic Sea Powerhouse’

By Mark Valladares | Mon 27th March 2023 - 11:18 am

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called for the creation of a “Celtic Sea Powerhouse” to serve as a new economic region for Wales harnessing green technology on the first day of their spring conference.

The policy comes on the back of the announcement of freeport status in Milford Haven and Port Talbot.

The policy calls for the cutting of red tape in Wales to establish floating offshore wind farms which can currently take up to 10 years for floating offshore wind to be given planning permission.

The Crown Estate Estimates the Celtic Sea has the economic potential to accommodate up to an additional …

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Posted in Conference and Wales | Also tagged Wales | 1 Comment

Dodds: Wales should be Green Battery of Western Europe

By Jane Dodds | Mon 14th March 2022 - 5:31 pm

The Welsh and UK Governments should work together to turn Wales into a renewable powerhouse that could help allies in Europe reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas imports. Projects under construction or in the planning phase should be immediately fast-tracked. This will be a win-win not only helping to reduce UK and EU dependence on Russian hydrocarbons but boosting Welsh jobs and helping save the environment.

Wales currently exports over twice the amount of power it consumes and around 48% of electricity generation in Wales already comes from renewables. But with vast reserves of tidal power in the North and South of Wales, wind power in the West, the potential for Green Hydrogen facilities in former mining areas and hydropower potential throughout the country; Wales has some of the greatest potential for a green economy in all of Europe.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged jane dodds | 4 Comments

Wera Hobhouse blasts UK’s over-reliance on gas and inaction on renewables

By NewsHound | Tue 5th October 2021 - 1:44 pm

Wera Hobhouse MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Climate Emergency and Energy, has taken aim at the Tory government’s energy policies:

The Conservatives have utterly neglected the UK renewables industry to the point where coal power stations are being fired up. They need to come clean on a firm end date to fossil fuel use in the energy sector, but Boris Johnson studiously avoids this topic.

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Posted in News | Also tagged Boris Johnson government, gas and wera hobhouse mp | 48 Comments

This Weekend You Can Help Stop the Climate Emergency

By Alex Meredith | Thu 13th September 2018 - 12:00 pm

I’ll admit it, I do not always come to conference fully prepared. Well, to be honest, I’m often reading the motions or amendments for the first time in the hall. As a result I have sat in debates and wondered “why has Y been carved out” or “why hasn’t this great idea been extended to X” and occasionally “how on earth has line Z made it in”!

I know I am not the only one –speakers in debates often raise everything from minor tweaks to wholly new directions in policy in their speeches and interventions, only for a summation speech to respond with the reproving reminder “some good points have been made and we would have liked to have considered them at the consultation stage but alas they were not raised…..”

Well conference-goers, do not spend your weekend being (as I have) a disappointed would-be policy tweaker. Bring your ideas to the Consultative Sessions!

In particular, as a member of the snappily-titled Climate Change and Low-Carbon Economy Policy Working Group I want to urge you to come and spend your Saturday lunchtime in our clean, green company.

The Working Group has produced an initial consultation paper, but detailed policy formulation is still at an early stage so your thoughts, ideas and inspiration on this cornerstone of Lib Dem policy would be very welcome. We put forward some excellent policies in the 2017 manifesto that have been developed recently by the Vision for Britain: Clean, Green and Carbon Free report. Our task as a Working Group is to build on this strong base.

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged climate change, green economy and green policy | Leave a comment

LibLink: Ed Davey says Government is “butchering UK’s renewables”

By The Voice | Wed 6th January 2016 - 1:13 pm

Embed from Getty Images

BusinessGreen refers to some of Ed Davey’s recent comments as a ‘blistering attack’ in which he ‘slams Conservative ministers’.

He was responding to some research, including Freedom of Information requests, that was carried out by the Carbon Brief. In a nutshell, Conservative ministers have been claiming that household energy bills were rising because of a projected overspend of £1.5 billion by 2020 on subsidies for clean energy. Hence, they claim there was an urgent need to cut the subsidies for renewables.

But the disclosed emails between officials at the Department of Energy and Climate Change show that by last summer they already knew that energy bills would be 7% lower than originally projected.

According to BusinessGreen, Ed Davey claimed that ‘the revelations provided further evidence the government had slashed renewable energy subsidies on the false premise there was excessive upward pressure on energy bills. He also urged ministers to now release the full detail of the calculations used to project a £1.5bn overspend.’

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Posted in News | Also tagged ed davey, energy bills and featured | 6 Comments

Senior renewable energy figures support Lib Dem involvement in next Government

By The Voice | Sun 26th April 2015 - 11:00 am

Twenty figures from the renewable energy industry have written to the Independent on Sunday to say that they want Liberal Democrats to be involved in the next Government because of our record, in adverse circumstances, in this one. They said:

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Posted in News | Also tagged climate change and general election 2015 | 5 Comments

Victory for Lib Dems with announcement of world’s first tidal lagoon

By Mary Reid | Wed 18th March 2015 - 1:21 pm

The Chancellor has just announced that he will be opening formal negotiations which could lead to an investment of £1 billion in a world-first scheme to extract energy from tidal power.

Ed Davey has been working on this project for several years, so it is a great victory for Liberal Democrats in government, on the back of our other achievements on renewable energy. The UK is already the world leader on offshore wind, thanks to the Lib Dems.

The first tidal lagoon will be planned for Swansea Bay, as predicted in the Guardian this morning.

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Posted in News | Also tagged ed davey and tidal lagoon | 19 Comments

Ed Davey MP writes… Green energy auction paves way for 27 new renewables projects and thousands of green jobs across the UK

By Ed Davey | Thu 26th February 2015 - 12:13 pm

This morning I announced the results of the first auction for green energy generation. The results are impressive – more clean energy at lower costs.

Thanks to this first renewable electricity competition of its kind, I have offered contracts to 27 renewable energy projects across the UK. Enough to power 1.4 million homes and save the equivalent carbon emissions of taking 2 million cars off the road.

The projects include offshore wind and onshore wind and solar, and will create thousands of green jobs.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged climate change, featured and wind power | 21 Comments

LibLink: Andrew George on renewable energy

By NewsHound | Fri 30th January 2015 - 4:14 pm

Andrew George, Lib Dem MP for St Ives, has been writing for The Cornishman on renewable energy in the county.

I consistently pressed for Cornwall to become the ‘Green Peninsula’ – the UK exemplar for environmental policy, renewables and energy security – coining the phrase in an economic strategy paper for Cornwall ‘Rediscovering our distinctiveness’ in 1998.

I’m pleased that Cornwall has made good progress, but there’s still more to do. Cornwall now has thousands more jobs and millions of pounds more in turnover and is exporting its know-how and talents worldwide, in geothermal, offshore renewables infrastructure, etc.

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged andrew george | 7 Comments

Opinion: Getting ambitious on renewable energy

By William Hobhouse | Thu 4th December 2014 - 11:59 am

The debate on fracking and renewables is warming up. Ed Davey’s LDV article on renewables set the scene, Norman Baker contrasts renewables and fracking, and my article from August – Renewables not Fracking — remains relevant.

There are some Lib Dems who support fracking. In response to that, I set out here a vision for sustainable energy in the UK, a vision that, in the long term, does not include any fossil fuels.

Renewables currently supply about 15% of UK electricity supply. By 2020, Ed Davey’s aspiration is 30%. With a clear political vision, electricity from renewables can grow by 3 – 4% a year and there is no obvious plateau point.

This means 30% electricity from renewables in 2020, 60% electricity from renewables in 2030, 90% in 2040, 120% in 2050, and 150% in 2060.

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Posted in Op-eds | 37 Comments

Carmichael talks green investment, energy and renewables

By The Voice | Tue 28th October 2014 - 8:55 am

Yesterday, Alistair Carmichael spoke at a Green investment conference in Edinburgh, which is, of course, home to the Green Investment Bank.

It was a strong pitch to persuade those attending that the Liberal Democrats are delivering in Government on policies that are both green and pro-businesss. Here are some of the highlights.

Being Scotland, there had to be a bit on the constitution, though, and the Smith Commission:

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Posted in News | Also tagged Alistair Carmichael, climate change and green investment bank | 4 Comments

Opinion: Generating electricity – why we should push for renewables, not fracking

By William Hobhouse | Mon 18th August 2014 - 8:15 am

This article is about how we generate electricity in the UK, and makes the case for electricity generation to be 100% carbon-neutral, and to be frack-free.

Climate change remains one of the greatest risks of our age. We know that the climate is changing: we can either accept the risks and take what comes, or we can mitigate the risk by using technology to end our dependency on fossil fuels. Liberal Democrats campaign for the latter.

In 2013, figures for the UK and the whole EU for electricity generation are as follows:

On these figures, we have some catching up to do. Many would think that given the particular advantages of wind and tides our islands have, we would be doing more than catching up – we would be leading.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged energy, fracking and nuclear energy | 80 Comments

Ed Davey MP writes…Investing in green energy

By Ed Davey | Thu 17th July 2014 - 9:15 pm

Today I published the Government’s first ever ‘Energy Investment Report’. It shows how Liberal Democrats in Government have delivered on jobs and investment in energy – particularly green energy – and shows the plan we now have for this to continue for decades to come.

Let me be clear – investment in the energy sector has not been a ‘nice to have’. We inherited a legacy of energy underinvestment from Labour and we’ve spent the last four years turning this around. The sheer scale of the investment has already …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged energy and featured | 34 Comments

Edward Davey MP writes… Massive boost for clean, green energy

By Ed Davey | Wed 23rd April 2014 - 2:30 pm

Today I have announced the award of 8 new contracts for renewable electricity projects which will provide around £12 billion of private sector investment and once built will contribute around 4% of Britain’s electricity capacity.

These projects will support 8500 jobs and our overall electricity reform plans will generate over 200,000 green jobs. These projects and the jobs created will be across Britain – from the Moray Firth to Liverpool Bay and from Teesside to Norfolk.

Five of the projects are for offshore …

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Posted in News | Also tagged climate change and featured | 7 Comments

Ed Davey MP writes… An onshore wind cap makes no sense

By Ed Davey | Fri 18th April 2014 - 9:00 am

Rarely a week goes by without an onshore wind story appearing in the media – normally negative, with some Conservative source trying to undermine this important source of renewable energy. The past few weeks have been no different.

First, let’s set the record straight. Liberal Democrats in Government will not accept a cap on onshore wind. Of course what other parties choose to put in their manifestos is a matter for them. But this Coalition Government is not changing tack on onshore wind or renewables and we will not …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged energy, energy security, featured and wind power | 25 Comments

Opinion: Not a budget for green policy

By Duncan Brack | Fri 21st March 2014 - 12:02 pm

David Cameron may now view climate change as a serious threat, thanks to the winter floods, but you wouldn’t know it from his Chancellor’s Budget statement on Wednesday. What did the Budget do for green growth and the low-carbon agenda? –

Froze the carbon price floor (paid by large emitters) until the end of the decade. Introduced just last year at £16/tonne carbon dioxide, it was supposed to increase steadily to reach £30 in 2020 and £70 in 2030; now it’ll stick at £18. This makes coal more attractive and low-carbon energy less.
Ended Enterprise Investment Scheme tax breaks for investments in renewable electricity and heat (while retaining them for everything else).
Extended compensation for energy-intensive industries from the electricity bill levies funding renewable energy.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged green taxes | 13 Comments

Opinion: Don’t waver on energy policy

By Steve Coltman | Wed 11th December 2013 - 6:05 pm

The recent debate on energy prices was kicked off by Ed Miliband’s declaration that a Labour government would freeze energy prices for a while. Understandably this is attractive to some who are struggling with household bills but the proposal will not in the long run benefit anyone (except perhaps the Labour party). Energy companies can only control the prices they charge to a very limited extent; they would put up their prices in anticipation of a price freeze then raise them again when the freeze is over. Labour are attempting to bribe the electorate with their own money.

It now looks …

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Posted in News | Also tagged energy prices | 11 Comments

Ed Davey MP writes…Big boost for investment in renewable electricity

By Ed Davey | Wed 4th December 2013 - 1:01 pm

It may seem to Lib Dem Voice readers that important energy announcements are a bit like buses. You wait some time for one and then several come along together. So hard on the heels of Monday’s energy bills package today Danny Alexander announced the final strike prices for renewable technologies and also which companies had qualified for the final stage of being awarded early investment contracts. This is good news for investment in the UK’s infrastructure and good news for our move to a low carbon economy.

On the back of these announcements we expect an additional £40 billion of …

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Posted in News | Also tagged electricity | 5 Comments

Ed Davey writes… Europe must stay ambitious on climate change

By Ed Davey | Mon 27th May 2013 - 12:56 pm

There has been a lot of talk over the last few weeks about Britain’s place in Europe, but there’s one thing that I hope we can all agree. We need the EU to help prevent climate change.

We are an island nation, a trading nation, dependent on the global market for prosperity – for food, for energy, for many of the products we rely on in. It is unsurprising that the UK was one of the first countries to recognise that significant climate change will directly affect our way of life. And we were the first country to bind …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged carbon emissions, climate change and energy | 9 Comments

The Independent View: Voters support pro-wind energy candidates

By Jennifer Webber | Thu 9th May 2013 - 4:55 pm

Nine months ago Nick Clegg made his Leader’s speech to Conference in front of a backdrop featuring wind turbines. There followed months of speculation about the relationship between Lib Dem Energy Secretary Edward Davey and his junior Minister John Hayes, until the latter was moved. So were Clegg and Davey right to be so forthright in support? New polling numbers suggest so, despite what certain fossilised parts of the media would have us believe.

Over the last year there’s been a slew of opinion polls showing strong support for wind – as Davey said to the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy …

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Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged comres, ed davey, nigel farage and renewableuk | 4 Comments

LibLink: Ed Davey – my long battle for a ‘grand energy bargain’

By NewsHound | Sun 25th November 2012 - 4:15 pm

Lib Dem energy secretary Edward Davey was interviewed in The Guardian this weekend about the energy bill to be announced this week. The paper fillets the main points Ed made here:

• Insists that energy prices overall will be 7% lower than they otherwise would have been in the medium term as a result of government policy, even if prices in real terms may rise due to the worldwide energy market.

• Rejects talk of a government-sanctioned dash for gas as overblown, even if he concedes the Conservatives will big this up.

• Says shale gas will not have a significant short-term

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged edward davey, energy and john hayes | 11 Comments

LibLink: Christine Jardine – Balance of Scottish power

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 23rd August 2012 - 9:25 am

Until the Summer, Christine Jardine was deep at the heart of Government as a special adviser on Scottish media based in Downing Street. She’s now returned to Scotland and full time Liberal Democrat politics.

This week, in the Scotsman, she argued that over reliance on land based wind farms can hurt the communities where they are based and predominantly benefits the landowners who pocket the subsidy and don’t pass it on to local people. She argued that more attention should be given to offshore and tidal projects, like the one Scottish Secretary Mike Moore was so enthusiastic about a few …

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged christine jardine, green deal, the scotsman and uk government | 2 Comments

Edward Davey MP writes: The greenest government ever – at an affordable price

By Ed Davey | Wed 25th July 2012 - 11:58 am

The announcement I made today of the levels of support for renewable generation for the period 2013-17 will unlock generation and network capital investment worth £20-25 billion between 2013 and 2017 This is the kind of sustainable long run growth and green jobs we need to get the economy moving again. This is further evidence that pursuing green policies can bring real economic benefits. The CBI recognised this in their report earlier this month stressing the need for a stable climate for green investment. I just wish that some of the critics of green growth policies would pay heed …

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Posted in News | Also tagged climate change, economy, green jobs, jobs and sustainable growth | 6 Comments

Leaked letter shows Osborne is pressurising Ed Davey on green energy

By NewsHound | Mon 23rd July 2012 - 12:23 pm

Jim Pickard in the FT carries details of a leaked letter from Gerge Osborne to Ed Davey laying down the law on crucial green energy issues. The letter includes the demand that Davey sends a “strong signal” that the government is in favour of “unabated gas”:

…I have been handed a letter from the chancellor to Ed Davey, energy secretary, which suggests that the wind subsidies are only

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Posted in News | Also tagged ed davey and george osborne | 6 Comments

LibLink: Ed Davey – Out of the Shadows

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th March 2012 - 12:20 pm

The Lib Dems’ newest cabinet minister Edward Davey, secretary of state for energy and climate change, is the subject of an extensive profile in the latest issue of The House magazine, re-printed on PoliticsHome.

And it sounds like he couldn’t be much happier: “This is the thing I wanted to do – it’s my dream job. Environment, and the whole climate-change agenda, is one of the reasons I joined the Liberal Democrats. It’s something that really motivates me in politics and it’s a great privilege to be here. … I’m not going to be giving in on Liberal Democrat …

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Posted in News | Also tagged edward davey and nuclear power | 1 Comment

Opinion: Opening up the benefits of renewable energy means considering much more than just the size of subsidies

By Simon Beard | Fri 2nd March 2012 - 11:25 am

At present for somebody to benefit from the subsidies offered to small scale renewable energy production they must have three things:

1 – Ownership of a property suitable for producing renewable energy

2 – A substantial amount of capital to invest in installing the technology and

3 – The opportunity to invest this capital for 25 years, with no possibility of early pay back unless they sell their house, in which case it is an open question what return they might receive.

Unsurprisingly this leave most people unable to access these benefits, even though many may have something to contribute to renewable energy production, …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged feed-in tariffs | 5 Comments

Ed Davey MP writes… Solar power for the many, not the few

By Ed Davey | Thu 9th February 2012 - 4:27 pm

Some things in politics are symbolic. For dyed-in-the-wool environmentalists like the Liberal Democrats, solar power is one of these things – indisputably clean, green and cutting edge technology. The sort of thing Liberal Democrats in a government that aims to be the greenest ever should be unequivocally behind.

Our commitment to the environment was why I joined the party in the first place.

So I understand why many of you were confused and disappointed when the Government appeared to scale back the Feed in Tariffs that allow people to install solar panels in their homes and businesses, not least when our decision …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged department of energy and climate change, feed-in tariffs and solar power | 28 Comments

Opinion: Flaws in Policy Exchange’s report

By Reg Platt | Mon 23rd January 2012 - 11:54 am

Another day, another headline on the cost of green policies. This time thanks to a new report from Policy Exchange as part of their ‘Greener, Cheaper’ workstream. With customers feeling the pinch from high energy bills, Chris Huhne continues to have his work cut out to defend green policy spending. Problems with Policy Exchange’s analysis, including their uncritical support of gas and aversion to the promotion of growth by Government, must be brought to the fore.

The main argument of Policy Exchange’s report is that there are additional costs to consumers from renewable policies beyond those directly on the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged energy | 7 Comments

Opinion: Feed-in tariffs and the Lib Dem fight to ensure the Coalition really is ‘the greenest government ever’

By Lucy Care | Mon 7th November 2011 - 11:40 am

Feed-in tariffs, a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies, have been used successfully in many countries to increase the amount of electricity being generated from renewable sources.

The UK has actually been fairly slow off the mark on this. Our aim to be ‘the greenest government ever’ included support for feed-in tariffs.

Indeed, in the Coalition Agreement the preamble to the section on Energy and Climate Change said: ‘We need to use a wide range of levers to cut carbon emissions, decarbonise the economy and support the creation of new green jobs and technologies.’ It went on to say ‘We will establish a full system of feed-in tariffs in electricity,’ and ‘We will encourage community-owned renewable energy schemes where local people benefit from the power produced.’

So what is happening to the system of feed-in tariffs? And how are the changes going to encourage community-owned renewable energy systems?

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged chris huhne, energy and feed-in tariffs | 14 Comments