By Chris Welby, Good Energy’s Commercial Director

 The government, in the form of Ed Miliband, has finally accepted the need to support microgeneration.  But why, if we're building wind farms off shore and looking at a barrage across the Severn, do we need householders to generate their own energy?

Principally, it is about source. A customer with a generation source in their home can use 100% of what they generate. Therefore the carbon cost, assuming it is a renewable source, is the cost of building and installing the equipment spread over the total amount of energy produced. If you import that energy – even 100% renewable energy purchased from the likes of Good Energy – then around 14% of that energy can be lost in transmission between the generator and the customer’s home. As we build more turbines off-shore or in the North of Scotland (where the best wind is), then the greater the losses will be.

Take renewables out of the picture; the biggest source of energy generation is then natural gas. This produces on average 360g/kWh of CO2 when the fuel is used. But how much energy is used drilling for and transporting that gas from deepest Russia to the power station? Or to the home, in the case of gas central heating (versus renewable heat solutions like solar thermal.)

The same principle applies to coal mined in Poland, or Uranium from Australia.  The true carbon cost of imported fuels is much higher than using the wind or sunshine at the place of use.

This is why the government, if it is truthful about its energy efficiency ambitions, needs to support microgeneration, and encourage people to use the energy at the source where it has been created. Not turn us all into exporting mini generation stations. The question now is HOW?

Have a look at our pathway to a local, natural, renewable future for the country.