Green Councillors propose cheap clean energy scheme for all

Written by Pete Goodwin Wednesday, 11 January 2012

Bristol could kick-start a groundbreaking national initiative to bring down the price of green energy.

The Green Party's Cllr Tess Green wants fellow councillors to back a plan to help consumers build up enough buying power to command significantly lower prices for energy, without having to rely on damaging fossil or nuclear fuels.

The Green motion is the first to be dealt with on the council order paper at next Tuesday's full council meeting. If it is passed, a study will be launched to see if a Dutch initiative, Met de Stroom Mee, could be applied in the British energy market. Met de Stroom Mee (roughly 'go with the current') acts much like a buyers' co-operative, using its purchasing power to negotiate the best price from the power companies.

But the Bristol Greens' initiative takes that one stage further; it specifies that the energy should be from renewable sources.  (but see added note below)

"That way," says Cllr Tess Green, "we could extend the Dutch system beyond reducing fuel poverty.

“It would give a boost to the market for renewables, restoring some of the business confidence that has been undermined by the government, and help toward tackling climate change, Peak Oil, and all the hidden costs of nuclear energy"

“At first we were just thinking of a Bristol based scheme, but the regulator told us it couldn't be done on a city basis. That opened the door to a much larger and exciting challenge of taking it nationwide"?

Cllr Gus Hoyt, her fellow Green on the city council, added:

"If passed this motion could benefit individuals all over the country - it's about time we took a bit of the power back. It means everyone can have clean and affordable energy that literally does not cost the earth.

“It also gives BCC excellent credentials nationally as a green capital interested in real carbon reduction and not just ticking boxes and meeting quotas"

[ENDS]

Notes for Editors:

1. The Dutch initiative is summed up in a pamphlet (pdf) from the New Local Government Network

2. The motion before council is the 'golden motion', ie the one to be debated first. It's the first time the Greens have had the opportunity to present it.

3. The Motion reads:

COUNCILLOR T GREEN TO MOVE:

Background

The costs of energy are rising steadily, leading to widespread fuel poverty in the UK and at the same time we are facing serious climate change caused by our profligate use of fossil fuels.

For many ‘shopping around’ for the best energy tariffs is confusing and time-consuming and it is often those working the longest hours or earning the least who are unable to take advantage of cheaper rates. This motion aims to address this issue of energy injustice. We also aim to stimulate the UK renewables market and make us a world leader in providing our citizens with affordable clean energy.

For the purpose of this motion we define clean energy as energy derived only from renewable resources i.e. excluding all fossil fuels and nuclear processes.

We propose that BCC leads the way to co-ordinate a national ‘energy bulk-purchase’ scheme of clean energy on behalf of UK residents based on an existing Dutch scheme ‘Met de Stroom Mee’. We had hoped to implement this solely for Bristol but cheaper tariffs have to be available nationwide by law.

A network of councils would be able to negotiate cheaper costs through bulk purchase both for their own needs and those of citizens. The scheme should also include incentives to reduce consumption.

This scheme will require investment to set up, but it is intended that this will be shared across authorities and it is likely that savings from the scheme will make it self supporting in the future.

Action

This council requests the Sustainable City team (a team within Bristol City Council) prepare a report to consider the above and to consider how to:

· Initiate and form a national network of authorities able to negotiate together a good rate of clean energy purchase

· Implement a scheme with this network to allow all UK citizens to buy cheap clean energy (where clean energy is defined as energy derived from non-fossil fuel and non-nuclear sources)

Council regards this a matter of urgency and requests this report if at all possible, be presented to the June Cabinet meeting and that the report specifically considers the possibility of implementing the scheme by December 2012

4. (Note added 13/1/12):   Since writing this, we've learned that Met de Stroom Mee does specify renewable energy in its offer.   Which makes it even better.