This Is Guernsey

By Nick Mann

MOVING to Continental time could save energy. The States has rejected the idea in the past, but Deputy Peter Roffey is floating it again because of the power savings and social benefits he says it could bring about.

Members will debate an energy policy Green Paper next month, with the public being encouraged to take part in the consultation exercise.

Deputy Roffey will raise the time zone issue during that.

‘If Guernsey were to move from its present parity with the UK in respect of its time zone and fall in line with France instead, there would be a very considerable energy saving,’ said Deputy Roffey.

‘I think this aspect has been largely overlooked whenever a possible change in time zone has been discussed.’

He said that under the current zoning, someone getting up at 7am and going to bed at 11pm was wasting a huge amount of natural daylight.

‘For about 300 days a year it is light at least an hour before he gets up, while on each day of the year he uses artificial lighting for more than an hour before he goes to bed.’

That means better use of daylight would save about 300 hours of electric lighting a year, he added.

Multiplying by the 20,000 households in Guernsey brings it to six million hours.

‘In other words, this squandering of natural energy is equivalent to having an extra 685 homes in Guernsey with electric lights blazing 24 hours a day.’ Use of heating would also change by shifting time zone, he said.

Energy policy steering group chairman Deputy Bernard Flouquet confirmed that the idea had been discussed at a late stage but was not included in the report. He said the last time it was raised, there had been objections from the finance industry.

‘I appreciate Deputy Roffey’s concern in bringing this to everyone’s attention. It’s issues like this that perhaps the group has not put in the report, but the whole subject has so many different options and approaches coming out on a daily basis.

‘We had to come to a point to try and bring these recommendations forward to be debated.’

Deputy Roffey said there were broader reasons for raising the time zone issue.

‘I think it will bring considerable social benefits, ranging from more chances to visit the beach after work in the summer to mitigating against antisocial behaviour because of the lighter evenings. One quirky advantage of the change would be that the early flights to London could leave at 8am and still arrive in the English capital at 8am.’