An industry insight into our energy needs

In the most recent edition of TTA property marketing specialist’s publication, industry insights, the environmental issue contains the following article by Tweedie Brown, deputy chairman of PSG Solutions. It should make anyone connected with property, whether as homeowner, developer or agent, pause for thought…

It’s the winter of 2014; UK plc is on a three-day working week; troops have been called in to aid the police in quelling riots and preventing looting; petrol stations and petrol depots are under armed guard; power is supplied on the National Grid for eight hours a day – priority is being given to the manufacturing base and superstores in an effort to keep the economy going and the populace fed.

The winter of discontent...

Constant interruptions

Problems are particularly bad in large conurbations where there are the tallest tower blocks and sink estates with no lighting and constant interruptions to power supplies. The unemployed are turning to violence and intimidation in their frustration. The old and single parent families are suffering particular depredation. These are dark, disturbing days of despair.

On mainland Europe there is a different story. France is sitting pretty. Their investment in nuclear power has paid handsome dividends. Along with most of the EC their supplies are secured. Britain regularly has to go to Brussels with its energy cap in hand to beg for help. Once again it is regarded as the ‘sick man of Europe’.

Other methods

Meanwhile in households up and down the UK, people who are fed up with constant interruptions to their power supplies are turning to other methods of generating their own electricity. Small, efficient wind turbines capable of supplying power to single buildings are selling like hot cakes; air source and ground source heat pumps are in high demand; photo voltaic and solar panels are appearing on roofs and beginning to outnumber satellite dishes.

Surplus energy is piped into the national grid from those fortunate enough to produce it and an ‘I’m all right Jack’ mentality has taken a grip on society. And with the exception of these ‘off -grid’ generation technologies, there’s no prospect of relief until 2020…

A flight of fancy? Impossible? Don’t bank on it. Welcome to the ‘Energy Crunch’! It may be an extreme view of our future in the global gas greenhouse of the next couple of decades, but the prospect of it has forced our Government to get its finger out and finally declare that ‘nuclear’ is an option – and a low carbon one at that – in the portfolio of energy production techniques that will be necessary to mitigate the effects of the energy crunch.

The reality is that we have been dithering about what is the best way to power the nation while our ability to do so has been diminishing. Currently, nuclear accounts for around 19 per cent of our energy production; by 2020, we will be lucky if even one of our existing 10 nuclear power stations is still in service.

It takes five to six years to design, build and commission a new one and about the same time (Sizewell B took six years to get planning consent) to steer a course through the local planning minefield. Do the sums: that means that we should be designing by 2014 and planning from last year! The Government is introducing legislation in an effort to short-circuit the planning obstacles, but we are all well aware of public inquiry pitfalls (try planning a new airport).

Security of supply

And similar decisions need to be made on energy generated by fossil fuels. At the same time as our existing nuclear production capability reduces, so does that from coal, oil and gas. All of these commodities are risky; not so much because they are finite resources and will eventually run out (although that is a serious consideration in the longer run) but in terms of security of supply.

This manifests itself in the vulnerability of the supply chain and the fragility of price fluctuations on world markets. Britain has got to the stage where it is becoming reliant on imports for all three categories of commodity.

We're an energy hungry nation

Not a happy place to be in an uncertain world with a voracious appetite for electricity. Alternative sources of power are, by and large, complementary to the core nuclear/fossil fuel methodologies. Sun, wind and sea technologies all provide useful additions to the mix, but they are, by their very nature, intermittent and at best offer a ‘top up’.

This is not to belittle the valuable contribution they offer, for there is a convincing argument to be made around diversifying energy generation to the maximum extent, so that reliance on a single or few sources is avoided, thereby minimising the risk of wholesale disruption. Going off grid is also an option and Combined Heat and Power systems, delivering electricity to communities, or for discrete industrial purposes, is highly efficient and importantly, a low-carbon means of doing so.

For individual domestic purposes the pundits say that the next generation of UK millionaires will be those who come up with micro-generation techniques that make homes energy self-sufficient.

The fact remains, though, that we are not there yet. We are faced with an energy crunch of enormous proportions. Some estimates put it at 40 per cent of peak national demand in 2020.

We need an alternative way to save the planet

Contact Details

PSG Solutions plc

t +44 (0)1484 773295

e tweediebrown@propertysearchgroup.co.uk

w www.psgonline.co.uk

Tweedie Brown CBE, Deputy Chairman

PSG Solutions plc and its subsidiary PSG Energy Ltd have been involved in the domestic and commercial energy assessment business for the past two years. We have seen the necessity to deliver, to a sometimes sceptical and often naïve client base, a reliable service that is based on trust and loyalty.

We have been closely following developments in the energy marketplace so that we can offer informed and impartial advice to our customers. We have seen a vision of the future that we don’t like and we want to make sure that it doesn’t happen.

Troops on the streets quelling energy crunch riots…?

TTA Contact details: 020 7886 0300 or go on-line at www.ttagroup.co.uk