Green power vs carbon

LIVERPOOL – For a very advanced and wealthy nation like the United Kingdom (UK), the people of Great Britain are very fortunate to enjoy the benefits of their country’s progress in their everyday living. Take the case of fast internet connectivity, free wi-fi services are available in all public places here in UK. There is even no need for any passwords but just log on to your e-mail address.

The British people, however, are bracing themselves if they could afford to absorb the full shock to the economy of the majority vote that approved UK decision to break off membership from the European Union (EU). As a huge part of the EU common market, the break out of UK has started creating ripples slowly coming out in the open, either good or bad for those in business, trade and industries.

We arrived here in Liverpool about less than three hours train travel from London. More popularly known as the birthplace of the iconic British pop group, the Beatles. We have been invited to the Renewables Marketplace 2016 being held here in this part of Britain where a large component of the people’s electricity consumption come from renewable energy (RE) sources.

The two-day event takes place at a crucial time while the British government is at a stage of negotiating their country’s exit out of the EU. More popularly called as Brexit, – or shortened term from British exit out of EU – the RE industry along with the rest of the British economic and industry sectors are still trying to figure how this will play out.

The Brexit was ratified by the British people in a thin margin of votes in favor of leaving the EU during a national referendum held in June this year. The process though for implementing Brexit is still being worked on by the British government to mitigate any dislocation of each trade, industry, and other economic sectors after years of being part of the common market of the 27-member states of EU.

Like the rest of industries and economic sectors all over UK, the British energy/power industry would remain connected with the rest of EU electric grids while Brexit is still in negotiation stage. This, we were told by Coralie Laurencin, director of the power and renewables of IHS Markit (NOTE, pls don’t change the spelling of MARKIT). The IHS (Information Handling Services) Markit is a company based in London that provides information and analysis to support the decision-making process of businesses and governments such as in energy, technology, maritime and trade, to name some.

According to Laurencin, renewables – from wind, solar, hydroelectric and biomass – account for second major source of electricity generation now all over UK. Laurencin cited gas remains the biggest power source in UK and nuclear energy as third. But in the year 2025, she said, UK targets to raise RE generation to as much as 42% while reducing coal as energy source to 0.7%.

This is validated by the UK government official statistics showing RE sources “are replacing coal as mainstream technologies generating power for British homes, offices and factories.” Last year, 25% of UK’s electricity was generated from RE sources. It reflected an increase of 29% in 2014 and that nearly half of this or 48% came from wind power alone.

The coal power generation produced 22% of UK’s electricity last year but it went down from 30% in 2014 level. Renewable UK deputy chief executive Maf Smith noted 2015 saw the first year that RE outperformed coal in electricity generation all over Britain.

The contribution of offshore wind grew by 30% in 2015 while on shore wind grew by 23%. The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy which published the data, explained this was due to increases in capacity, load factors and higher wind speeds.

Smith was quoted saying: “The (UK) government took the right decision when it announced the phasing out of coal. Now we can see renewable energy filling the gap, replacing old technology with new.”

During our train ride that crossed through the countryside, we saw many of such on-shore wind turbines that dotted the landscapes along the way here from London to Liverpool. These giant windmills are not even perched atop hills or mountains like those we have in Pililla, Rizal.

Laurencin, however, told us many British people find “ugly” the huge wind turbines that stand out in their landscape. But UK government’s latest poll on the public’s view on energy showed 76% support on RE and 70% also see RE projects provide economic benefits to Britain.

UK is one of the chief proponents of “decarbonization,” or doing away with coal-fired power plants by the year 2025. It seeks to contribute to the worldwide efforts to reduce global warming and thus mitigate effects of climate change.

While UK is moving away from coal, Laurencin stressed though the new leadership of the government under Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledges it cannot achieve complete decarbonization as ideal environment by the target year in 2025. UK is one of the signatories to the Conference of Parties (COP)-21 in Paris last year to reduce carbon emissions. The COP-21 aims to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate change with the goal of keeping global warming by 2 degrees centigrade.

The Philippines, through former President Benigno Aquino III signed the COP-21 that committed our country to this agreement to reduce our own carbon emissions at the same magnitude with the rest of over 120 countries that signed it, including the US, the EU, etc.   

Ironically, however, before Mr. Aquino stepped down from office on June 30 this year, a total of 19 new coal power plant projects were signed. Mr. Aquino left the burden to his immediate successor, President Rodrigo Duterte to have the COP-21 ratified by the new Senate to implement this international treaty.

With the cost of electricity in the Philippines as the highest in the region and worsening power supply shortage especially in Mindanao, the Aquino administration entered into contracts to construct baseload coal-fired generating power plants that can be put up and quickly go on stream within two years.

Told about these 19 new coal plants coming on stream in the Philippines, the obvious RE endorser riposted: “Short-term gains but long-term pains.”

China’s experience in coal power plants darkening the clouds in Beijing up to now should serve as a grim reminder what will happen to the quality of the air we breathe in the Philippines with 19 new ones coming into stream.

But now President Duterte declares his vehement objection to ratify the COP-21 as something that would impede the country’s industrialization bid. Dubbed as the “green power” being environment-friendly, the fate of promoting the use of RE as major source of electricity that don’t come cheap in the Philippines will remain a lucrative battle for carbon emitters like coal power producers.