NO need for new nuclear plants!

Fukushima reactor blows up

I have been blogging against new nuclear power for some time. One of the comments made regularly about nuclear power is that it provides constant reliable power. Now there is a renewable technology that can provide constant reliable power too! Forever! And it is Green!

Wave energy to replace nuclear power, Now!

In the Orkney Islands there is this company:

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd is the first and only centre of its kind in the world to provide developers of both wave and tidal energy converters – technologies that generate electricity by harnessing the power of waves and tidal streams – with purpose-built, accredited open-sea testing facilities.

In Australia there is this company:

Carnegie Wave Energy Limited is the ASX-listed inventor, owner and developer of the patented CETO wave energy technology that converts ocean swell into zero-emission renewable power and desalinated freshwater.

In the England there are only testing sites as of yet:

Wave Hub is the world’s largest and most technologically advanced site for the testing and development of offshore renewable energy technology.

Located 16km offshore in the eastern extremes of the Atlantic Ocean Wave Hub offers four berths for testing offshore renewable energy technology. Purpose built, pre-installed, grid connected infrastructure is provided with a 30MW export capacity, upgradable to 48MW. With a fully consented site and a 25 year lease The Wave Hub offers water depths ranging from 48m – 58m, one of the best wave climates in Europe, and wave climate monitoring. A full range of baseline data along with proximity to a variety of ports and associated facilities are available. Access to expert academic institutions specializing in offshore renewables, access to funding support, and a dedicated operational team enhances options.

So there are alternatives to nuclear power available NOW!

This is the basic message that eisforenergy.org and my book are making all the time. Why do I want wave energy systems over nuclear? Because it is available now! Because if it fails it may sink to the ocean floor, or drift into shore, or get hit by a ship. When a nuclear plant fails there is radiation poisoning for a thousand years.

UK’s nuclear meltdown future

DECC is working on plans to build 80 New nuclear plants in this country. I don’t want any new nuclear plants here or anywhere. We do not need them.

The future of the UK, Europe and the planet depends on YOU and ME forcing our governments to change their ways. You need to write to your member of parliament and tell them that you prefer wave energy over nuclear energy.

Write to you MP now!

All you have to do is search for your representative using google. Then send them a simple statement about how you feel. I will be here with all the information you need to get the message across.

You can make a difference TODAY

Guardian article Tuesday 11 March, while Russian troops invade Crimea our government will invite Russians to build nuclear plants in the UK!

DECC at Edinburgh Uni lecture says..

“I can tell you that, behind closed doors and with microphones switched off, there are interesting debates happening in Whitehall,” he said. “Russia wants to build a nuclear power station in the UK.”

Guardian article: UK indifference to Ukraine

Haye chairs a UK-Russian working group on nuclear power, and was in Russia recently for discussions. Haye regards the Russian VVER reactor proposed for the UK as “perfectly safe”, but he cautioned that there would be problems convincing the public that a deal with Russia was acceptable, especially given the current crisis in the Crimea. “It’s a long road, a very long road,” he said.

Hergen Haye, head of new nuclear development at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), told students at Edinburgh University that active discussions were taking place in London after a memorandum of understanding had been signed with Russia.

Tell David Cameron that you don’t want Russians building nuclear plants in our country!

Write to your MP now!

Stop Hinkley is working for you

Stop Hinkley is dedicated to the decommissioning of all the nuclear reactors on the Bristol Channel and the Severn Estuary and is committed to the introduction of greener technologies more appropriate to this millennium.

Stop Hinkley Site

Stop Hinkley started life in the mid-eighties as ‘Stop Hinkley Expansion’ (SHE). As the name suggests, the goal was to ward off the government plan to build a new Pressurised Water Reactor known as Hinkley C.

Stopping Hinkley C is vital to our renewable energy future

I have already covered the Stop Hinkley movement. Working to stop new nuclear power in the UK is vital to our renewable future. You have the videos to watch via these links to the original blog posts: video 1, video 2, video 3, video 4.

France banned fracking! UK needs to ban fracking also?

Fracking has been covered here too. France has BANNED fracking forever because the French people care for their environment. We need to stop fracking in the UK for the same reasons.

Frack Free February logo

Last meeting 27th February 2014 in bath

Frack Free February is a Month of Action in Somerset with public meetings, talks, stalls, workshops, actions and more all raising awareness about the threats to our communities and the bigger picture of extreme energy.

Stop Hinkley C and Frack Free Somerset are holding a few meetings you need to know about: Radiation Risks of Fracking and Nuclear Waste.

Write to your MP

Write to your MP now!

I used to have a great job. I went to work earlier than normal. I worked more than 8 hours a day, and I made a good wage. I sold insulation, boilers, and solar energy systems for home owners. They all loved their upgraded homes and their PV systems and are now enjoying the benefits of the FIT. They are warm and have lower energy bills.

David Cameron cut the FIT payment scheme by more than half and the great job ended. I was out of work, unable to support myself or my family. The higher tax rates I had been paying to the government turned into a JSA – Job seekers allowance payment to me. I was not alone. The entire division of my company that used to sell and install solar systems went under. The parent company was bought for peanuts by a capital investment company. More workers lost their jobs. Estimates are that the radical and needless cut in the FIT tariff caused around 40,000 to lose their jobs.

I have finally found a new job working for a big company selling insulation, boilers and solar systems. This company had contracted with the BIG 6 energy suppliers to use their ECO contributions to help those families in fuel poverty.

Over 2 million homes in the UK have problems with energy bills and have to chose between heating or eating. I have blogged in the past regarding the rip-off rises in electricity and gas over the last few years. Cameron has wrongly blamed these rises on the ECO and Green Deal programs that the government has put in place. This is not true. The cost increases are due to greedy energy suppliers who are manipulating the wholesale cost of energy and then passing the charges on to YOU the poor consumer. They make lots more money each time they do this.

Now Cameron is pushing back the ECO targets. Eco funding was set to help the poor and unfortunate who can’t heat their homes because it costs too much. New boilers and insulation in an older home will help reduce the costs of heating a home. It will also reduce our dependency on foreign fossil fuels and remove the need to frack in the UK.

The more energy efficient we become as a nation the more we become independent from foreign energy suppliers. Greater efficiency leads to reduced need, which leads to no new nuclear power plants being build. Reducing our energy usage also helps us to meet the carbon targets we have agreed to reach. Our climate is changing and we are paying the price with greater storms and flooding. We need to change our ways to help our climate and our country.

David Cameron has decided to use the fraudulent rises in energy prices as an excuse to cut funding to the ECO program. Employers have already begun laying off staff because the energy companies have said they don’t have to fund these programs any more. The cut in funding has been immediate. The loss of jobs has been as fast. Has your bill gone down yet??

Mine hasn’t gone down. IF your bill does go down please comment on this blog so I can spread the good news. I don’t expect to see allot of comments. Cameron is once again helping his friends in#stead of you. Cameron is cutting government support for ECO like he did FIT and we are paying the price with climate change, new nuclear plants, fracking, and a loss of jobs.

Write to your MP and tell them to return the ECO funding now!

David Cameron is working for BIG OIL companies and not you. Not only has Cameron sold you out he will make you pay twice. Cameron wants Taxpayers to pay to clean up any pollution caused by fracking if the companies go bankrupt, after a proposal to make UK operators take out insurance against such damage was ruled out by the government. As if that were not enough Cameron’s Government has now opened up more than half of the UK to fracking. Two-thirds of the UK’s land will be available for fracking companies to license. A government map published on Tuesday shows, with new areas opened up in the Midlands, Cumbria and Wales.

Cameron has cut funding for renewable solar systems on your home. 1 year ago in January Cameron was fighting a legal battle to enact drastic unwarranted cuts in the FIT. The government has consistently maintained that deep cuts are urgently required to stop the feed-in tariff scheme exceeding its budget – a scenario that could result in increased energy bills. I find it very ironic that Cameron could say that only one year ago and after the cuts prices are still going up.

Cameron has cut the tariff paid for renewable land based wind energy systems. Wind energy onshore has the potential to replace nuclear plants across the country. In the USA onshore wind is taking over nuclear so well that Dominion is now shutting a money-losing reactor and selling coal plants, Exelon warns of shrinking nuclear margins and an Edison International merchant coal-plant unit has gone into bankruptcy. The previous post discussed the fear that energy companies are facing over the end of centralized energy generation. Here is the proof of what is happening now in the USA.

Meanwhile in the UK, three new off shore wind farms have been canceled in the last 3 weeks alone! Fresh questions raised over UK offshore wind plans mean that Cameron has won a TRIFECTA! Scottish Power decides not to go ahead with the Argyll Array, which would have provided green energy for 1 million homes. This is another win for Cameron’s plans to destroy renewable energy. Cameron pays lip service about the government’s plans to tackle a looming supply problem and to meet its low carbon targets.  Meanwhile, RWE, another of the big six power companies, announces two weeks ago that it is abandoning plans to construct a £4bn offshore wind farm, the Atlantic Array, off Devon. On Thursday, Centrica, owner of British Gas, announced it was selling its stake in another huge offshore wind farm, Race Bank, off East Anglia. All of Cameron’s hard work cutting our renewable future is killing jobs too! The UK wind sector has been dealt a blow as Vestas has announced that they will scrap their plans to build a new wind turbine factory in the Port of Sheerness.

He is selling your future away at twice the price France is willing to pay to build new nuclear power plants. In short David Cameron and his ‘Greenest Party Ever’ is nothing of the sort.

Below is only one of many articles regarding the PM’s stance on Fracking. Fracking has been proven to cause pollution in underground water reservoirs and cause environmental pollution on the surface of areas where drilling occurs. Fracking is bad for our environment. Fracking gives BIG Oil just what it needs to carry on. Fracking is not renewable, not clean, and not green! It is known to cause EARTH QUAKES!

British PM urges EU to cut fracking red tape.

London – British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso that the continent risks being left behind in the shale gas revolution unless red tape is cut, the Times reported on Tuesday.

In a letter to Barroso, seen by the paper, Cameron said new EU legislation was “a major cause for concern” and insisted that the shale gas industry could be regulated “in a safe and sustainable manner”.

“There is clearly merit in providing additional clarity on how the existing comprehensive EU legislative framework applies to shale gas,” he wrote.

“However, I am not in favour of new legislation where the lengthy timeframes and significant uncertainty involved are major causes for concern. The industry in the UK has told us that new EU legislation would immediately delay imminent investment,” he added.

The full article on News 24

The biggest advantage to solar power is the fact that it is owned by homeowners, local councils, social groups, and communities. The ownership of the means of producing electricity is the key to unlocking our renewable future and lower bills.

The big 6 energy companies are at risk of losing their business model because we can now make our own energy; we don’t need them any more. We can make electricity and charge a price we think is fair for all.

Here is an excellent article from the Guardian:

Westmill Solar, a 5 megawatt PV farm sited between Swindon and Oxford, is one of the largest arrays in the UK. It was built a year ago to profit from the high feed-in tariffs then available to large PV installations. Adam Twine, the farmer on whose land the 21,000 panels were sited, kept a right to buy back the solar farm from its original financiers. Twine is an enthusiast for community ownership and recently set up a cooperative to purchase the whole array. Small investors can apply to buy shares now, with local residents given priority. If successful, the new cooperative will be the biggest community owned solar farm in the world.

Read the whole article here.

I’m writing a book. It’s all very new to me, but I will be posting my progress, as well as interesting information and interviews on this site.

Keep checking back for updates!