MORE than £6m would be saved over five years if households in Guernsey switched five light bulbs to energy efficient ones. And it would cost the States only about £375,000 to supply them for free.
The revelation is made in the Officer of Utility’s response to the energy policy Green Paper.
‘The OUR calculates that significant savings in cost and in carbon emissions would be achieved if every home in Guernsey replaced five light bulbs with energy efficient ones,’ the report says.
Carbon emission would drop by about 2,400 tonnes a year - one-fifth the carbon equivalent emissions it is estimated Guernsey produced in 2002.
Each household would also save around £260 if it switched.
The regulator estimates that providing every home in Guernsey with five free energy efficient light bulbs would cost approximately £375,000 and that ‘an outlay of this amount by the States represents the most valuable and constructive use of what is a scarce resource.’
The UK has announced that it will phase out high-energy light bulbs by 2011.
Energy efficiency is a key element of the Green Paper, which goes to the States in December.
It is also out for public consultation.
‘As a general principle, the cheapest, cleanest and most pragmatic way of addressing Guernsey’s energy policy objectives is to use less energy,’ said energy policy steering group chairman Deputy Bernard Flouquet in the report.
‘The financial benefits of doing so are clear.’
Guernsey Electricity said that the policy was a matter for the States, but clearly had significant implications for the company and its future operations.
Addressed in the report are issues like buying back energy produced from micro-generation, expanding the cable link with France and large-scale renewable energy generation.
‘We will be formally responding to the Policy Council, but before we can do that we need to review in full the detail of the report,’ said GE managing director Ian Watson.
‘The broad objectives that have been set out in the policy letter are in line with the strategic aims of our own Green Enterprise initiative, which puts environmental issues much higher up the agenda along with sustainability, security and reliability of supply.
‘As part of that process we are actively encouraging feedback from the public, which will help to shape how we go about achieving these goals.’
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