This weekend Gregynog Hall, Montgomeryshire will host the Welsh Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference for the first time in many years. This iconic setting is the perfect place to debate the policies that matter to Wales. Our Leader Kirsty Williams, Montgomeryshire Parliamentary Candidate Jane Dodds and I will be speaking, and Lord Alex Carlile will be addressing our Conference Dinner. In a real sense, it promises to be a case of Welsh Liberalism coming home.
The event will also mark the launch of the Welsh Liberal Democrat’s consultation on Energy Policy in Wales: Powering Wales’ Future.
It is no understatement to say that Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing Wales for the next few generations. The Liberal Democrats have always been the greenest of Britain’s major parties. This is no less true here in Wales, with Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Members working to protect the environment for future generations.
In confronting this challenge we need to tackle our carbon emissions. There are two ways of doing this; the first is to use more renewable energy. The second is to cut down on waste, increase efficiency, and in doing so help those in fuel poverty. In this consultation, we ask questions on energy generation, large scale and microgeneration, devolved and non-devolved, on community benefit schemes, on devolution, on energy efficiency and fuel poverty and more.
The Welsh Labour Government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 3% per year, generating twice as much renewable electricity by 2025, and eradicate fuel poverty by 2018. Year on year, it misses its targets and gets further from the goal of a sustainable future for Wales.
One of the key elements in this process is to end up with a sensible energy policy that adds-up. While the long-term goal is a carbon-neutral Wales, we may require other technologies and energy sources in the intervening period, before zero-carbon is achievable.
While Welsh Liberal Democrats have always been supportive of small-scale, community-based microgeneration, this does have its limits. It is likely that we will need to generate energy from a wide variety of sources, and have a diverse energy mix to provide for Wales’ energy needs in the future. We must consider how we will ensure that our proposals for Wales’ future energy mix are realistic and credible.
It is for these reasons that I have launched this consultation and I would welcome responses from anyone with an interest in Welsh energy policy by 1st December 2013. Once this consultation is complete I will be formulating an energy policy motion to take before the Welsh Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Newport next year.
* Cllr William Powell is President of the Welsh Liberal Democrats
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12 Comments
Copy of comment sent to the Welsh energy policy office:
I quote from your consultation paper:
“We will also oppose new carbon-based power that does not have appropriate capture and storage built in.”
This is effectively blanket opposition to any new carbon based power. No gas/oil/coal . Is there a specific reason why you include wood in this? There are a large number of woods in Wales that could provide at least some renewable energy as biomass. (wood is carbon based, more than gas, less than coal).
CCS is an expensive technology which does not appear to work at industrial scale. If it did, it would take 25% of the power generated for cooling and compression of the exhaust gas, and for it to be worthwhile, the resulting liquid CO2 has to remain sealed in the underground storage structure for at least 1,000 years. Well containment tends to fail with a MBTF of around 20 years, so that’ll be difficult. If it does fail, you will have just produced even more CO2 than you thought you were going to. I’d suggest that while gas fired does give some CO2, the combination of lower carbon intensity and the better efficiency of CCGT generation means that in the medium term it’s worth replacing coal with gas – roughly halving the CO2 output per MWh.
I don’t think that sentence can be taken as blanket opposition regardless of the merits – or otherwise – of that position. ‘Appropriate’ isn’t defined so it can be refined at a later stage in line with the developing tech.
I ignored “appropriate” as a redundant adjective. No-one sensible would write “we oppose carbon based power that has inappropriate CCS” , so appropriate adds no meaning in the original.
Well if you are only going to read the parts of the sentence you like then there really is no point discussing it with you.
Brain Morse
I presume you stopped reading jenny barnes’ last comment after the first three words.
Okay Brian. There is no such thing as appropriate CCS, as I explain in the rest of my comment. Better?
I think this is a very positive consultation. Wales is caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment with the desire to expand renewables on the one hand and the poor devolution settlement on the other.
I am very pleased to see marine renewables given such prominance. Even within the context of the rather wishy-washy proposals so far provided for the Swansea Bay Lagoon by its builders.
On the CCS point, I have to side with Brian. I don’t think you can read it as anti fossil fuels unless you ignore part of the sentence; and doing so doesn’t really seem logical to me either.
Really important issue, glad to see it raised by the Welsh Lib Dems.
rural Wales urgently needs the kinds of jobs and investment green energy can bring. Hopefully we will see far more wind and hydro in the Uplands in the years to come.
Nice also to see it addressing the carbon capture and storage issue. We should not be building new stations without the right systems in place.
Big supporter of this consultation and renewable energy in general. Wales has far to few renewables, especially onshore wind.
I am also pleased to see comments address the CCS point. Brian is correct that the wording covers all bases and Jenny’s criticism is unfair. Nonetheless, as the consultation states while all the technology exists in isolation it has not been put together on a useful scale sucessfully. Without a workable CCS option we should not be building new high carbon plants.
Great stuff. Wales has the right hills and waters for renewable energy. We need to review TAN8 and establish more SSAs to maximize wind output, develop test beds to advance marine options and endure that Ed Davey doesn’t block full energy devolution in Silk part 2!
Jenny Barnes is right. CCS is a seriously bad idea whether deemed ‘appropriate’ or not.
Hard to believe some people want to actively rule out CCS. While it’s still in the testing stage it would be crazy to say that we should not use it some day if appropriate. In my view the consultation document has got it right, as have people like Brian and Steve above.