MICROGENERATION!

An interesting report this week from the British Department of Business, Energy and Regulatory Reform states that even with existing technology, a proposed program to subsidize the microgeneration of electricity, could generate 5% of Britain's power by 2020. This represents 5 nuclear power plants. It also would represent a cut of 30 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.
This would entail the use of photovotaic panels, biomass boilers, solar water heaters, heat pumps and small scale wind and water generators.
Private owners are already going ahead with the installation of these units, but with government funding, it is estimated that one in five buildings could be self sufficient in 5 years.

If no action is taken, says the report, Britain can expect about 500,000 microunits to be installed by 2015 and 2-3m by 2020. But, with the right incentives, nearly one in five buildings in Britain would effectively become mini power stations, feeding electricity into the grid, or generating enough to be largely self-sufficient. Some of the greatest gains would be in combined heat and power units which are suitable for large blocks of flats, estates and businesses.

Britain has been widely criticised for not doing as much as other countries to encourage a mass market for small-scale renewables. The few existing schemes have failed to kick-start the industry. But the report says this could be swiftly changed: Germany has invested nearly 1o Billion in photovoltaic technology and Sweden has made it very attractive for consumers to install heat pumps.

The numbers which are the most interesting is the number of nuclear reactors that this kind of passive technology could replace. The amount of money invested in passive energy research by big corporations and government is a drop in the ocean compared to the incalculable amounts wasted on nuclear technology. If there was a "Manhattan Project" for passive energy to develop the existing ideas into practical solutions to solve the worlds energy problems, we would have workable, practical answers in a few short years.

Nuclear Technology is a dead end. It is a money pit in which we shovel our future. The real dangers of nuclear technology will be with humans for thousands of years. There is obviously a lot to be learned from the pursuit of atomic energy, but the present direction and state of an industry that generates electric power with it is a clear present deadsly threat to our planet.