Pros and cons to the main three green energy sources in the UK

We have put together the pros and cons to green energy following the release of an online petition made by Ben and Jerry’s.

They teamed up with climate change charity 10:10 and created the petition on the 17th of February 2017, to get the government to reinstate support for clean energy.

According to Ben and Jerry’s the UK has a lot of potential clean energy and claims that the government has not only cut support to the cheapest clean energy source – onshore wind, but is dragging down solar down with it. Here are the pros and cons to green energy sources.

Wind:

Pros:

Wind energy doesn’t cause pollution as its green source and as wind energy originates from the sun it is a source we won’t be running out of anytime soon. Wind turbines yield energy savings and prevent power outage for homeowners who use the source.

Following Storm Doris it has shown that the UK has it fair share of windy forecasts, according to renewable UK the UK is Europe’s windiest country. This is backed the Met Office, who when questioned by Ask for evidence, claimed that the British Isles is third in terms of that baseline long-term averages for 'windiness'. According to latest reports by Renewable UK as well as providing secure, low-carbon electricity, wind power brings a direct boost to the UK economy.

Cons:

The major issue that wind turbines face is the effect on local communities who have them in their area, as it takes up a lot of the landscape along with the noise pollution it creates. In the most recent report 41% of planning proposals were rejected the UK saw Six in 10 UK onshore wind-farms rejected according to the Guardian in 2015.

The cost of a small roof mounted 1kw turbine can cost up to £3000 and although they require a little amount of maintenance the cost of inverters, which are likely to need changing, cost up to £1000 - £2000. Also the amount of energy produced can depend on the power direction of the wind.

Solar:

​Pros:

The positive side to solar energy than wind turbines is that it doesn’t make any sounds. Despite England not being the sunniest country, it can generate sufficient amount of energy, BBC reported that the government said it “could provide 4% of UK electricity by 2020” with Imperial College claiming that UK should have 10 million homes with solar panels by 2020.

According to green match.com Solar thermal heating installations will typically save around £80 from the energy bill. With solar energy it is quiet diverse as it can generate electricity or heat.

Experts have said that the sun will last another 7.5 billion and it can make you money with the Feed-in Tariff scheme. It is when the government pays you for every kWh of energy your panels generate. For more information click here.

Cons:

It has a high dependency rate of the sun, meaning it cannot collect any energy during the night. Also the more electricity needed the more panels are needed meaning a lot of space is required for the panels and although there are storage batteries they are very expensive and have yet to be fully tested for reliability.

The initial costs for installation can be between £4,000 and £6,000 and cover about 21 sq m of roof space for 3kWh of electricity. However, there has been a decrease of costs towards solar panels in the past few years.

It can reduce the house value as some don’t like the look of solar panels, which can cause issues when selling homes. There are schemes where you can get solar panels for free, but if the new house owner doesn’t wish to carry it on you may have to pay for the panels to be removed. Also its not suitable for all homes, as it’s best for south facing roofs, as east or west can reduce the amount of energy produced and if you have north facing roofs or shaded from the sun it may not be the best fit.

Biomass:​

Pros:

They are safe to transport and handle as they are biodegradable and are less toxic than a table of salt. According to Energy Saving Trust you could help save up to £225 a year by replacing an older gas heating system with a wood-burning system. If you are replacing an old electric heating system, it could save you as much as £990 per year.

It is a carbon negative fuel because it can remove carbon that’s in the atmosphere and it’s a convenient energy source, as it doesn’t require changes. For example, when using bio-diesel and bio-petrol you don’t need to make any changes to your vehicle engine according to biodiesel.com.

Cons:

The increase of use of biofuel will have an increase on the use of water, as to feedstock biodiesel production crops are used. Water is used for boiling ad cooling when producing biofuels in refineries. This also leads to another issue, crops also need fertilizer to grow which can affect the environment negatively and cause water pollution.

If there's a high increase, then it can cause a shortage of food crops to create the fuel. Despite the fuel itself is green energy creating it can cause industrial pollution, as production is heavily reliant on water and oil and can also emit large amounts of emission unless more efficient methods are created.

To sign Ben and Jerry’s petition click here: