Guernsey Faces Heavy Tab for Tidal Power

Every householder in Guernsey would have to pay £500 if tidal power was used to meet proposed cuts in CO2 emissions, according to energy regulator the OUR.
Electricity consumers already confront paying more than £40 million to replace on-island generation capacity by 2016.  The regulator said that more effort should be put into energy efficiency.

Its stance on tidal power puts it at odds with Guernsey Electricity, which recently released its own response to the paper.

Greenhouse gas emissions from electricity could immediately be reduced by 20% for less than 15 per household if the States put an emphasis on energy efficiency, said OUR director-general John Curran.  This stands in comparison to a cost of 500 per household if it chooses to invest in a new generation technology like tidal energy.
Even at this cost, it achieves less than a 1% reduction in total emissions in Guernsey.  In addition, given the early stage of tidal technology, a great deal of questions on the cost and timing remain.
The Green Paper proposed a number of options for meeting a new carbon emission target a reduction of 30% on 1990 levels by 2020.

The regulator thinks that the different nature of emissions in Guernsey compared to other jurisdictions needs to be taken into account.

The proposed energy policy was focused on energy generation, which accounts for less than 9% of the island’s current emission sources, he said.

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