Juggling risk and opportunity
IN A transitional state from the brown to the green economy, wrestling with the demands of the Paris Agreement, the island’s much-delayed electricity strategy couldn’t be coming out at a more crucial time.
The Environment & Infrastructure president outlines the rationale, arguments and opportunities in today’s pages. Can the island be at the sharp end of technological change, or will innovation drag us along with it? Our balance at the moment is wrapped up in ‘the energy trilemma’ – a juggle of security of supply, affordability, and environmental impact.
At the moment, security is inherent in having the protection of the power station behind the island’s cable link.
Affordability matters to everyone. But is it the right thing that Guernsey’s electricity goal should be to deliver at the cheapest possible price?
But arguably the extension of the Paris Agreement to Guernsey – welcomed heartily at the time of Cop26 – is the most contentious of all. Plenty of people will argue that what happens on this tiny speck of rock itself will make no difference to global climate goals. All this makes the electricity strategy – and the future direction it offers – a crucial piece of work.
As Deputy de Sausmarez says, it offers opportunity, but also risk. Is she correct, though, that the biggest risk would be to miss the chance to capitalise on the opportunities?