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The coalition government recently lifted the ban on local authorities selling renewable energy back to the national grid. Nick Appleyard reports on the impact At a time of public spending cuts, opening up a new revenue stream to hard-pressed councils can only be greeted warmly, especially in light of this week's Comprehensive Spending Review. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) claimed the move would be worth up to £100m a year in income for councils. Energy secretary, Chris Huhne, blamed Whitehall's ‘dogmatic' reliance on ‘big' energy‚ for standing in the way of the local authority role in the UK's green energy revolution. ‘This is a vital step to making community renewable projects commercially viable, to bring in long-term income to benefit local areas, and to secure local acceptance for low carbon energy projects,' he said. At last week's annual LGA climate change conference, Phil Wynn Owen, director general of DECC‚ a national climate change and consumer support unit, told delegates the policy decision was an important change. He said: ‘It will allow local renewable energy to be at the heart of local energy plans, going forward.' This could indicate the minister, a staunch opponent of nuclear energy before his rise to the Cabinet, has started to set sail in a new direction of thinking at the department. However, that remains to be seen and, last month, the Liberal Democrat MP became the latest senior figure to urge his party to accept the coalition's less palatable policies. But councils nationwide are now drawing up plans of their own to take advantage of the Government's move, especially while the feed-in tariff scheme offers such tempting prices for the renewable energy generated. Cllr Richard Kemp, vice chair of the LGA, has challenged local authorities to become the developer of wind farms and, therefore, those which make the profit. Bristol City Council looks set to become the first local authority in the UK to operate its own turbines on its own land. Its scheme will consist of two 131-metre turbines built at a coastal site in Avonmouth, which was earmarked due to good wind exposure and easy links to the national grid. Costing £9.4m, the turbines will collectively produce up to 6MW of power, worth £1m a year, and should be operational by mid-2011. Neil Harrison, assistant executive member for sustainability, says the scheme will be significant in two ways – financially, and in terms of energy security. ‘We are likely to start off by selling to the grid but will reserve the right to change this, should a situation occur where the city's energy security was under threat and we needed the power,' he told The MJ. The turbines are part of a wider scheme aimed at cutting the council's energy bills and carbon emissions. Solar panels will be placed on the city's schools and social housing stock, in order to generate further energy, while biomass boilers will be used to cut back on fuel usage in leisure centres. The council forecasts the overall plan will generate the equivalent of £23m over a period of 20 years, through renewables sold back to the grid and in savings to energy bills. ‘But we will not stop there. This is just phase one of our plans,' Mr Harrison says. ‘Phase two will kick in from 2015, and involves scaling up our renewables work to the next level.' He adds: ‘The Government's move did offers some light, financially, ahead of the forthcoming cuts. But the issue here is not just about money, it is about expertise. We need the ability for councils to start looking at the exciting, bigger projects. ‘There is a real will to take it to the bigger stage.' Hampshire already boasts three energy-from-waste facilities across the county, but executive member for environment, Mel Kendal, says there will now be a greater focus on the development and construction of new facilities. Other authorities following in these footsteps include Cornwall Council, which has backed a plan to develop its own solar park on land near Newquay Airport. Suffolk CC intends to install ground-mounted solar panels at a site in Bramford, while Cheshire East is planning to build a hydro-electric generation scheme in Congleton. John Wood, chair of ADEPT's environment group, tells The MJ it is clear the renewable opportunities for local authorities are significant, given their assets. He urges councils to think creatively about solutions. However, Mr Wood, who is also director of environment at Hertfordshire CC, adds: ‘During the current climate, thought should be given in business cases to the long-term use of the asset, and that revenue returns can be counted on. [But] the wider objectives for conservation should not be downplayed in the dash for cash.' But, as councils develop their renewables plans and reveal ambitions of being bigger players in the nation's green energy revolution, concerns have mounted surrounding the future of the feed-in tariff, which has been made available to them. It is thought the Treasury might force the DECC to cut the amount paid to producers of renewable energy, ahead of a planned review of tariff levels in 2013. However, any such move would undermine the Government's claim to be the ‘greenest ever', as well as being at odds with the decision to overturn the ban on councils selling renewables in the first place.

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WHITEHALL

From town hall to national grid

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