Independence Is On The Agenda: Avoid Energy Price Rises Using Alternative Energy Sources!

October 15, 2012

Here we go round the annual energy price mulberry bush. The UK’s largest energy supplier, British Gas, set out 6% energy price rises for both gas and electricity: the others are scrambling to catch up, with NPower’s energy price rises up by 8.8% for gas, and electricity price rises by over 9%.

We already experienced an 18% increase in gas prices and a 16% increase in electricity prices fourteen months ago, albeit with a tiny 5% cut in electricity prices in January of this year. So these latest energy price rises mean, according to comparison site uSwitch, that the average annual household energy bill has seen a more than 150% increase since 2004. And we now hear whispers of a carbon tax to pay for energy infrastructure after the next election.

This is serious stuff! A recent survey published by Consumer Focus estimated that nearly four out of 10 English households (39%) are worried about affording their energy bills this winter, and 70 per cent of those, or six million households, plan to cut back on heating this winter.

Alternative Energy Sources are the solution. Across the rural economy, farms, households and businesses have the opportunity to use alternative energy sources and avoid energy price rises using the wind. This is not a luxury: a farm scale wind turbine for example, can be the difference between viability of a rural business and otherwise. It follows that a small wind turbine or even two or three at the end of the lane is not a blot on the landscape.

Small wind turbines have been supporting communities and families for thousands of years. The modern small wind industry continues this tradition. Current planning guidelines were developed to manage large wind farm projects. This has left a “broad brush” legacy, unsuitable for the much smaller scale of proposals from prospective small wind turbine owners. It is vital that planning authorities across the UK recognise the difference between these, comparable in height for example with a silage tower and the considerably larger “medium wind” turbines.

Increasingly Gaia-Wind turbine owners have been finding ingenious ways to use the energy they generate: drying grain; powering bore holes and cattle sheds. As the price of energy rises, this facility increases in value and not just to the owners - successful businesses and farms vital to the local economy - small wind and energy independence has a important part to play.

For alternative energy sources and energy independence, call Gaia Wind now and avoid the energy price rises!