March 3, 2010

Everybody in UK eco-circles is talking about
George Monbiot this week, which is just the way he likes it.
George Monbiot is an unashamed cheerleader for big power – his column in the
Guardian has previously come out
in favor of large nuclear power stations, and this week he spoke out
against micro-generation. George Monbiot is also in favor of large, centralised wind farms and other forms of renewable energy, and sets himself firmly against micro-generation –which he caricatures as a middle class subsidy.
The occasion for his latest outburst was the introduction of the UK government-backed
Feed-in tariff (FiT), which will reward householders and others who generate renewable energy back into the grid. Ignoring the fact that the FiT was enormously successful in Germany, which has become a European leader in micro-generation, “the only renewables policy that makes sense,” says George, “ is to build big installations where the energy is – which means high ground, estuaries or the open sea – and deliver it by wire to where people live.”
»Keep reading 'Monbiot anti-micropower rant is anti-green'
February 25, 2010

The UK Government’s energy conservation watchdog has admitted that consumers were duped by inappropriate grants into buying wind turbines that never stood a chance of working properly.
In an attempt to ensure that there is no repeat of the wind turbine debacle, the Energy Savings Trust, funded by Government and big energy companies, has embarked on the first large-scale trials aimed at providing definitive information on the performance of different green technologies in the UK.
The first trial concluded that an unknown amount of government cash has been wasted encouraging urban consumers to buy wind turbines when no one really knew whether they were effective or not.
»Keep reading 'Government grants create turbine debacle'