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Starting in Yorkshire, the low carbon revolution
ONE of Britain's leading authorities on fuel poverty is working with community groups in Yorkshire to develop schemes that could cut fuel bills and protect the environment.
Hugh Goulbourne, the Leeds-based head of law firm Cobbetts low-carbon energy practice, has written Waste Not Want Not, a Government policy paper about how to conserve energy.
Mr Goulbourne has also offered advice to the team behind a hydro electric scheme in Settle, North Yorkshire, and a community renewable energy group based in Otley, West Yorkshire.
Before he joined Cobbetts, Mr Goulbourne worked on a fuel poverty and district heating project in Shoreditch, London, which highlighted the problems faced by people who were struggling to pay their energy bills.
He said: "The network of problems that come from poor energy efficiency and fuel poverty is huge. If you're living in a cold home, you are far more susceptible to poor health. That has a knock-on effect on the public finances.
"Educationally, it has an effect. It's not just the temperature. If it's a poorly-lit home, how does that child have a chance at school?
"Climate change affects some of the poorest countries in the world, such as Bangladesh. It will also affect some of the poorest bits of our country. The lower-lying parts of our towns and cities tend to be the poorer parts. That's where we're going to get more flooding. We need to be far more energy efficient, far leaner and far more technologically advanced.
"Yorkshire was one of the seabeds of the industrial revolution. I see this as a new, low-carbon industrial revolution."
He said a business model based on common ownership – or mutuality – provided a possible solution to the energy crisis.
"The energy assets we have were built by the Government and then privatised,'' said Mr Goulbourne.
"As we look to build these new assets, then it's going to have to be financed by the public to some extent. The public sector is running into real financial difficulties, so there has to be a new financing model."
This model could be built around a community partnership, Mr Goulbourne argued.
"If the majority of people join the scheme, they don't have any planning issues because the community is in favour of it,'' he said. "It also answers the question about reliability because in any system where you are a member, you have a right to vote. That's a far more certain form of regulation than any that can come from Westminster.
"The mutual model is an old one but it's coming back into fashion. The interesting thing about hydro and wind is that these are things the big private-sector firms aren't going to be interested in. The returns on these projects are, typically, three to four per cent over 20 years.
"That's good, but it doesn't service your venture capitalists or somebody investing in the stock market. They are going to have to be done by community groups. That's great because it means community groups powering their own electricity supply and driving down the price."
Andy Walker, the chairman and founder of Otley-based Sustainable and Renewable Energy, in Wharfedale, said his group was presenting a "compelling case" to persuade businesses to invest in renewable energy.
He added: "What excites me is sustainable communities and people working together to provide their own energy. It's a case of winning hearts and minds."
Mr Walker's group plans to install high-efficiency, renewable energy systems in homes around Otley.
Settle Hydro was established as an industrial and provident society with the purpose of owning and running the Settle Weir Hydro Electric Scheme. The society will generate revenue by selling "green" hydro-electricity. Any surplus revenue will be used to benefit the local community.
When it starts working next month, the Settle Hydro scheme is expected to generate enough electricity to power 50 houses.
Lakeland Marine Construction began work on site in June. The scheme uses a 2,000-year-old engineering device – the Archimedean screw – which will turn water near Settle Weir to make electricity.
Learning from international examples
When it comes to energy efficiency, Britain is behind many of its European counterparts, according to Hugh Goulbourne, who heads law firm Cobbetts' low-carbon energy practice.
He added: "The US is a good place to start. They have vast resources of oil and gas, and, to a certain extent, so have we; we've had the North Sea for the last 30 years. That has put us in a privileged position but we haven't had the challenges that other countries, such as Denmark or Germany, have had, where they don't have those natural resources.
"The reality is that, for a lot of people, energy prices are already too high. If you can make your homes energy efficient and put in things like solar panels, then it brings down the price for everyone."
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
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