Is renewable energy in Devon ‘an unmitigated disaster’?

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By Paul Homewood

Congrats to Philip Bratby, who has had a report published by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) into renewable energy in his local county, Devon.

It has unsurprisingly generated a kickback from the renewable lobby:

Countryside campaigners and renewable energy experts have clashed on how renewable energy has benefited the county, with campaigners calling it "an unmitigated disaster".

In a damning report published recently by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Devon trustee Phillip Bratby it states that the renewable energy industry in the South West "has been entirely dependent on subsidies for its growth and its survival".

Regen South West, an independent not-for-profit organisation set up to promote renewable energy in the region, has hit back at the CPRE report.

Regen chief executive Merlin Hyman has pointed out Mr Bratby’s "views on climate change and renewables are somewhat at odds with those of the scientific community and indeed of CPRE nationally who commissioned Regen to look at how we can meet the Paris Climate Change Agreement whilst minimising landscape impacts".

In the report, published on CPRE Devon’s website, it states: "The renewable energy industry has been entirely dependent on subsidies for its growth and its survival.

"The generation of energy from ineffective and inefficient renewable sources has created subsidised employment and has thus led to a huge reduction in productivity. Wealth has been destroyed on a massive scale.

"There is no evidence that the deployment of renewable energy has led to any reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions; on the contrary, it is possible that overall, emissions have increased.

"The deployment of renewable energy technologies has resulted in a detrimental impact on the landscape, on tranquillity, on heritage aspects, on residential amenity, on property values, on tourism, on local businesses, on agricultural land and on grid reliability and security of supply."

Sources of renewable energy have popped up all over Devon, earlier this month a solar farm near Holsworthy had it’s temporary contract extend a further 15 years.

Mr Hyman disagrees with Mr Bratby and says far from taking away from local communities renewable energy brings people together.

"The extraordinary growth we are now seeing in renewable energy across the world is a source of hope, hope we are beginning to turn the tide on climate change, hope that humanity can turn our ingenuity to looking after the one planet we have and hope that change can be led by local communities working together," said Mr Hyman.

"The first working steam engine was built by Thomas Newcomen in Dartmouth in 1710. I am proud that three hundred years later Devon is once again playing a leading role in an energy revolution, this time by harnessing our natural resources to produce clean, renewable power locally.

"Already the UK produces 25% of its electricity from renewables and I have no doubt that in the years ahead we will be charging our smart phones and powering our washing machines with clean power harnessed from the sun and the wind."

Mr Bratby suggests in his report that the county would be better served by one gas fired power station, he wrote: "The amount of renewable electricity currently generated in the whole of the South West could be produced by a single generator at a gas-fired power station for less than a seventh of the capital cost.

"No subsidies would be required. The excess cost of renewable electricity to all consumers (domestic, industrial and commercial) in Devon is over £80 million per year and in the South West is over £400 million per year. The brunt of the extra costs has been felt most by those in fuel poverty."

"I conclude that the deployment of renewable energy in Devon and the South West has been an unmitigated disaster. The only beneficiaries have been landowners,developers, foreign manufacturers and renewable energy promoters."

CPRE UK’s infrastructure campaigner Daniel Carey-Dawes commented: "Phillip Bratby’s report is, as the director of CPRE Devon notes, a personal one, so he is of course welcome to his opinions of renewable energy.

"CPRE is concerned about the impact of any type of energy infrastructure on our celebrated landscapes and is actively looking at ways the UK can meet its carbon reduction targets without destroying our beautiful countryside, whether in Devon or elsewhere.

"However, climate change is the most urgent and complex environmental issue this country is facing and it is already taking its toll on the English countryside. If we don’t do our best to reduce its impact, within a few decades it will have altered many of our most cherished landscapes forever."

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I have left a comment, and would suggest others do. It is a pain in the bum registering, and I found I had to resubmit the comment after registering. But it is important we don’t let the idiots win this debate.

I have already left a comment about this ridiculous statement by the CPRE infrastructure campaigner:

However, climate change is the most urgent and complex environmental issue this country is facing and it is already taking its toll on the English countryside. If we don’t do our best to reduce its impact, within a few decades it will have altered many of our most cherished landscapes forever.

There are a couple of other claims in the story that warrant closer attention:

1) The extraordinary growth we are now seeing in renewable energy across the world is a source of hope, hope we are beginning to turn the tide on climate change

I assume he is referring to this!

http://ift.tt/1RSrHnr

2) Already the UK produces 25% of its electricity from renewables and I have no doubt that in the years ahead we will be charging our smart phones and powering our washing machines with clean power harnessed from the sun and the wind."

Well let’s first remember just what the cost of this is: