Stroud District Green Party has called for the government to back up
its announcement of the South West Marine Energy Park with investment
in green energy.
but the government is missing an opportunity to boost the green
economy by not investing heavily in green energy research," said Cllr
Simon Pickering (Green, Slade), who works for Stroud's green energy
company Ecotricity.
"Without substantial investment, it is just window-dressing and a mere
renaming of a stretch of shoreline."
Pickering added that Stroud was well placed to benefit from tidal
energy, with Ecotricity announcing this week its purchase of a radical
wave power device called Searaser.
"Developments in wave energy could create hundreds of jobs in the area."
Other local companies that could benefit from developments in marine
energy include South Gloucestershire-based Marine Current Turbines
Ltd, whose SeaGen tidal generator is currently being tested in
Northern Ireland.
The Green Party has long been calling for massive investment in
renewable energy, leading to the creation of thousands of new
green-collar jobs.Wave power has the potential to generate 27GW of
power in the UK alone by 2050, equivalent to the power generated from
eight coal-fired power stations. There is currently only 3.4MW of
marine energy installed capacity deployed in the UK.
Pickering added that in addition to the South West's huge potential in
marine energy, the region was also the sunniest in the country, making
it perfect for solar energy exploitation. "The government came into
power claiming to be the greenest ever, but last year it devastated
the solar industry by slashing feed-in tariffs, leading to the loss of
hundreds of jobs. Now it has announced a marine energy park with no
extra investment, exposing its green credentials to be mere lip
service."
When the government pitched for EU money for wave energy last year, it
was for a scheme in Scotland.
George Osborne has also reneged on commitments to reduce the UK's
carbon emissions, promising to take them to EU levels rather than
those agreed in the UK's Climate Change Act.
