Choices 21. Ways out of the energy crisis

We are in the middle of an energy and cost of living crises, and widening gap between the very rich and the rest of the people, while our increasing energy demand is fuelling strife and wars around the world, not least the war in Ukraine.

We recorded this episode in late April, before the announcement of windfall tax and help with energy bills by the Chancellor in the UK. But these are short term solutions, we wanted to cover longer term ones. Besides how effective measures like those in the UK really are remains to be seen and we’ll get back to this topic again.

We talk about comparative advantages of different energy sources, like how to deal with fluctuations in renewable energy, developments in battery technologies, tidal-, nuclear- and geothermal power. Our Jill Duggan stresses that we need investment in research, for example to find out more about hydrogen. On a positive note, we can see that building renewable energy capacity is now cheaper than fossil fuels. We can hope for better prices in the future and a fairer supply of energy.

We also talk about what individuals can do like:

- turn down our thermostats

- insulation of our buildings

- heat pumps, photo voltaic

- install a smart meter and look at it – be aware of how much energy you use when

- use consumer power to push for better policies and products

When we talk about these actions, it’s not because we ignore those who live in fuel poverty and cannot even afford to put the heating on in the first place.

It’s because we want to recognise our social responsibility to lower demand even if we can afford the increasing bills and campaign for cleaner and fairer sources of energy.

For more tips on how to save energy - https://energy-trust.co.uk/

For trusted tradespeople - https://mcscertified.com/

For community solar power projects in the UK - https://solartogether.co.uk/landing