Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP
West Edinburgh Times (energy review)
Some of my constituents have asked about using the Water of Leith to generate electricity. It’s an interesting idea and timely, we need to generate more power from renewable energy.
The Government’s Energy Review will be published this summer. Reduction in carbon emissions and ensuring secure supplies of energy at an affordable price drive this review.
A quarter of the UK’s annual carbon emissions come from energy used to heat and light homes. Over 10m homes in the UK have insufficient insulation. This means 40% of heat lost in the average home disappears through the roof and walls and is enough to heat 3m homes for a year. This makes the average home responsible annually for more carbon dioxide than the average car.
Today, we have secure and mainly reliable energy supplies and a leap in renewable generation. However, self-sufficiency in oil and gas is reducing and we’ll be importing more. So we need also to reduce the demand for energy.
We need to do more to increase awareness of the true costs to consumers of their energy use. Real-time information on energy consumed by appliances and the cost are available and we’re looking at how this can be extended. We’re also looking at bills so they include information on how consumers are using energy and advice on how to make reductions.
It’s easy to talk green – the hard part is to do something about it. That means facing up to difficult decisions and looking at all the options available to us.
