Now that Guernsey Electricity Limited purchases only ‘green’ energy do we need to install our own clean energy system?
Yes. There are 3 clear reasons.
1. Every watt you personally generate is a watt for the local energy community, and it’s a watt for the world. Because we are connected to Europe by a cable link, the more electricity we generate on-island, the more renewable energy there is available for the rest of the world. At present, there is a massive shortfall in clean energy, so the more you generate, the more we can make a positive difference to climate change.
2. The price of electricity will continue to rise as the local electrical infrastructure needs to be extended, bolstered and maintained. The continued investment in renewables will mean higher energy costs as someone has to pay for all this. It either comes out of taxes or the consumer has to pay for it. Either way, you pay, but lower income tax is surely better, and there’s an incentive to invest in solar for home and business to reduce running costs.
3. Energy Security and Reliance on forces outside the island and our control. Because the energy GEL purchases comes via a cable link, our security of supply could be compromised – from either a break or equipment failure or because the contracted supplier decides to pull the switch. We need to have on-island energy resilience. The solution to that is to maximise our own generation in the home, in our businesses. The States themselves should offset all their operational costs and energy by renewables. We need energy storage in the form of home and business battery systems, utility-scale storage, and we need to produce hydrogen, which is a great store for renewable energy when in energy is in abundance.