Dithering over renewables could cause blackouts

The country could face significant blackouts by 2016, according to a newly appointed government adviser.

Speaking to the BBC in an unofficial capacity ahead of his appointment as a special adviser to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Professor David McKay said that not enough new energy capacity is being built to make up for coal and nuclear facilities being phased out.

"There is a worry that in 2016 there might not be enough electricity. My guess is that what the market might do is fix that problem by making more gas power stations, which isn't the direction we want to be going in," he said. "So we really should be upping the build rate of the alternatives as soon as possible."

Professor McKay wanted to make it clear that he was not speaking for the government when he made the comments. He is due to take on his new role for Decc on 1 October. As well as being a researcher at Cambridge University, Professor McKay is also author of a book on climate change called Sustainable Energy – Without The Hot Air, which has been widely celebrated for cutting through the hyperbole on the issue and tackling how the electricity demand can be maintained while also cutting carbon emissions.

Commenting on opposition to wind turbines and new nuclear plants, McKay said that action has to be taken to create new sources of energy.

"We have got a big problem at the moment the the public is anti-everything," he said. "There is a strong anti-wind movement, a strong anti-nuclear movement, people are against the barrage in the Seven Estuary, they are against waste incinerators and they are not that keen on electric cars and insulating their houses."

McKay added that the public has got to stop opposing new options for energy efficiency and accept that there will have to be changes.

"We've got to stop saying no to these things and understand that we do have a serious building project on our hands," he said.

The former deputy prime minister John Prescott said in August that local planning committees who oppose the construction of wind farms on aesthetic grounds should be given "stupid awards".

A recent report from researchers at six UK universities, titled Beyond Nimbyism, claimed there was very little evidence to back the idea that most people are broadly in favour of renewable energy until they discover that a facility is being built in or near their community.

Just two per cent, or 61 of the 3,251 individuals interviewed as part of the survey, were deemed to hold a view which could be characterised as Nimby, the report stated. For their purposes, the researchers classified Nimby behaviour as "being strongly in favour of renewable energy generally, but strongly against a proposed project".