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SOARING ENERGY PRICES HAVE THE GREEN EFFECT

Petrol is so expensive we are seeking greener ways of travel

Friday May 9,2008

By John Ingham

IT took the Second World War to produce the greenest generation of modern times, via petrol rationing and digging for victory.

Nearly 70 years on, soaring energy prices and the Tartan Tax Collector should have the same greening effect as the U-boats. Petrol is so expensive that even I’m dusting off my bicycle.

In 10 years of glorious New Labour rule the price of our heating oil has soared from 15p to 54p per litre. So this winter we’ll be wearing jumpers about the house.

Britain has no choice but to reduce dependence on oil, coal and gas, which leaves us at the mercy of maverick states and rollercoaster prices. But the dead hand of Government gets in the way.

Part of the energy mix should be solar power (which needs daylight, not sunlight). Millions of roofs could provide enough electricity on a good day to supply all our needs.

Others are doing it. In the past five years Germany had the equivalent of 1.2 million household solar installations. Britain managed just 6,000. In Germany householders are guaranteed a price over 20 years for surplus electricity fed into the national grid. In France, where solar power is taking off, households are guaranteed 45p per unit of electricity plus an income tax rebate for installing, says Solar Century.

And here? The Government cut the maximum grant for installing household solar panels and wind turbines from £15,000 to £2,500. Genius. This means it takes 20 years for solar panels to pay themselves back – so the bottom has fallen out of the UK market.

Ground source heat pumps, which use the soil as a storage heater, work all over Europe. But here the maximum installation grant is £1,200 on projects that can cost £12,000.

So while the Government doles out money to layabouts, it undermines its own fight against climate change – and we remain wedded to obtrusive wind farms and the tyranny of oil barons.