‘Tidal power will cost every household £50k’
Tuesday 17th June 2008, 2:30PM BST.
GUERNSEY GAS managing director Paul Garlick has claimed that it would cost every household in Guernsey £50,000 if the proposed energy policy were approved.
He estimates that the total bill for adopting it would be £990m. Mr Garlick (pictured) wants States members to challenge the report that will go before the House next week and hoped it would be sursised, or sent back for further consideration.
Deputy Tony Spruce will lead an attempt to do so. ‘It’s important that we make the right decision and there is no need to make a quick one,’ said Mr Garlick.
The huge bill he foresees would include £700m. for installing underwater turbines, plus £80m. for laying extra cables to link Guernsey with France. Additional generating capacity at Guernsey Electricity would cost £170m. without the buildings and oil-storage tanks to support it. The electricity network would need to be reinforced, which would take up £42m. and virtually every road would have to be closed at some time while the work was carried out.
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Still cheaper than using gas then!
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Let’s just ignore the super-large numbers that Guernsey Gas are coming up with – for the moment. The questions that we should be posing about continued fossil fuel use are:
1. Security of supply – most gas comes from the European grid, the supply of much of which is Russia, which has a tendency to switch off the supply when it feels like it!
2. Oil use – at the moment the Chinese use per head less than the Americans did before the Model T ford was produced. If we continue to rely on oil the price of doing anything on the island will snowball.
3. Future fossil fuel supplies – which no-one seems to have thought about – what happens when the world runs out in about 40 years’ time (at current estimations) – if we’re not set-up for it before then, how well do you think the island will cope without heating, transport, food….?
4. Energy exporter – we have one of the largest resources of tidal power in Europe – more energy could be produced than we need. If we supplied this to the European Grid, wouldn’t this mean our economy would be diversified??
thanks
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You know, in the Uk, a politician would have to declare a vested interest and step away from the debate. But no this doesn’t seem to apply in Guernsey. Indeed, an ex-director of Guernsey Gas is allowed to be vocal about energy policy and try to impose his will on the States. Is this right?!
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