Alternative Energy Debate

Yesterday afternoon I joined students at Oaks Park High School in Redbridge for a video conference debate with some of their counterparts from the United States. Over in New York State it was the morning session at Scotia Glenvile High school and everyone looked a lot fresher than I felt in the summer heat.

Oaks Park have used their video conferencing facility to link up with locations around the globe including China and Antarctica. They have used simulations to relive the evacuation of Montserrat during the volcanic eruption a few years ago. It is a fantastic tool for broadening experience and we could have done with it when I was growing up in the North East and anywhere over 50 miles away was regarded as a foreign land.


The Politicians

I was invited to give my views and to talk about the Mayor's energy strategy. Whilst I think there is a future for solar and wind power, I don't believe that it is sufficiently productive to cater for our power needs. Biomass is a more interesting option, particularly as it includes energy from waste and cleaner alternatives to straight incineration are being developed and trialled in London. But I felt that nuclear power was the only current option that provides enough energy to replace fossil fuels.

We shouldn't leave a damaged environment to our children but neither should we leave them an inadequate energy infrastructure. I grew up in the seventies during the miners strikes and I remember what it was like to be deprived of heat and light - you couldn't even get all the way through an episode of Thunderbirds without the comrades pulling the plug. My political education started early in life...

From the States Congressman Paul Tonko joined us for his contribution. As a member of the congressional budget committee he's a big fish and we were lucky to get him. He's also got considerable scientific experience in this field and he is chairing a congressional committee which plans to make recommendations about the design of wind farms and solar energy plants in future. He is a big fan of President Obama who seemed a popular figure with the students despite the bad press he gets over here on occasions.


The Alternatives

Students then took turns to present their research, looking at the up and down sides of nuclear, solar, wind and biomass generation.

With a much larger land mass and some very hot areas, the States clearly has more room for wind and solar generation, although they also have a greater demand for energy. They were very keen to move away from fossil fuels, not so much because of environmental concerns but because they were imported from countries that were not seen as America's friends. There was also a surprising degree of opposition to nuclear power amongst the New York students. There was much talk about changing behaviour to cut down on energy use - I wish Congressman Tonko the best of luck with that project...

The Redbridge students actually had a greater enthusiasm for nuclear and biomass generation and they recognised that our climate makes solar energy a non starter, at least until the technology becomes more efficient. There was much interest in wind power and a desire for neighbouring countries in Europe to pool their resources in the quest for clean energy.

There was also no clear winner from this debate. The sensible conclusion was that each option had a part to play and that the best idea was to use electricity generated by all these methods as necessary, with a greater emphasis on renewables as research made them more effective.

I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this well informed and thoughtful debate and I hope that I will have the chance to participate again in future.

As I left I picked up an email from our new Group Leader - he's putting me back on the Transport Committee. Excellent news because I have missed being involved and now I will be able to write even more pieces about trains and buses for the blog...