Have your say on island’s future energy generation
ALDERNEY residents are being encouraged to have their say on how energy is generated in the future.
AEL has almost completed its three-year £1.5m. project to replace and extend the electricity grid and the two-year £1.4m. upgrade of the power station is past halfway. The power station itself has been reorganised to accommodate eight new engines, effectively creating two power stations. Installation is due to be completed in October and switchover to the new system will be before the year’s end.
After the ‘repair’ phase, AEL will journey to new territory.
‘Where we go now is a choice that the community needs to make,’ said AEL managing director James Lancaster, pictured.
‘We’re energy junkies. Each one of us is using more electricity every year. Improvements to technology have so far meant we haven’t had to generate more yet – but that will change. Economic growth will require more energy. How does the island want to see those requirements met?’
If the community wants to move towards renewable energy of some form – for the foreseeable future, diesel will still be a necessity as well – what sort and how big? A wind turbine in the middle of the island may not be the answer, but what about a solar farm? Or electric cars? Should financial incentivisers be worked into the tariff system to make them more appealing?
To get the conversation going, AEL aims to take outline plans for renewable energy projects through the new major projects process later this year. The first is expected to be for a solar farm on the slopes of Fort Grosnez. They hope this will form a platform for discussions on how energy aspirations need to be carefully weighed against the island’s heritage and environmental values.
Another opportunity lies with the new power station engines. They can easily be attached to efficient heat-recovery systems to recycle some of the two thirds of energy lost in the generation process – heat that could be piped to institutional buildings or used to seed a new business.
Mr Lancaster finds the now only casual public interest in what AEL is doing to some extent reassuring.
‘Most people on the island seem content with what is happening on a basic level, which is a good thing. People would like cheaper electricity, but they understand the constraints.
‘But as a community we now need to be more engaged with what we want to happen in future. We need to decide who has the mandate to decide where we get our energy from – is it the public? Is it the States? Is it the AEL shareholders? Then we need to take a view on where we go next. Where we get our energy from is one of the most important elements of the island’s future. The first opportunity that the community should have to make their views known will be as part of a consultation on the island’s new Energy Policy, which I hope will be published in draft form in the near future.’
