Working Together | Green Energy News

February 20, 2005 – Vol.9 No.48

WORKING TOGETHER.

Trade associations can offer an array of services to company members: be a connection to government and politicians (lobby), collect and disseminate data, create strategies, and generally promote their industry sector and thus member companies.

When they choose, trade associations can work together on a common cause that will, in the end, be beneficial to member companies.

Eleven trade associations in the U.K., representing more than 600 companies, have banded to together for a common cause: find ways to build renewable energy capacity to 25 percent of the nation’s total by 2025. A formidable goal.

Though plans are in their early stages, the group of eleven has eight initial goals they will encourage the U.K. government to do:

--- Create a Cabinet level post within the U.K. government that would head a new department of energy and the environment. The new department would better connect environmental issues such as climate change with energy policy such as developing renewables.

--- Urge the government to create a renewables target of 25 percent by 2025.

--- Introduce new policies that promote and extend renewable energy goals into the transportation, such as renewable fuels for vehicles, as well as renewable energy for heating buildings.

--- Find additional revenue support for green power generation technologies that are near commercialization - biomass, offshore wind, and microgeneration.

--- Urge the creation of new tax incentives that will help build renewable energy while at the same time clean up the tax code to remove disincentives to build renewables.

--- Bring micropower into the fold as part of the 25 by 2025 goal. Urge government to create incentives for home and small business distributed generation systems, such as solar or micropower cogeneration systems, that will provide heat and hot water for buildings.

--- As an ongoing policy, government should develop a proactive framework to insure the implementation of renewable energy projects. Follow through with plans are the key words here.

--- Make sure the national power grid is adapted to renewable energy capacity as well as extended to meet new projects.

These goals will certainly be refined and detailed in the coming months and years.

The group of eleven are:

British Biogen http://www.britishbiogen.co.uk/

British Hydropower Association http://www.british-hydro.org/

British Pellet Club http://www.british-pellet-club.org.uk/

British Photovoltaic Association http://www.pv-uk.org.uk/

British Wind Energy Association http://www.bwea.com/

Combined Heat and Power Association http://www.chpa.co.uk/

Ground Source Heat Pump Club http://www.gshp.org.uk/

The Micropower Council http://www.micropower.co.uk/

Renewable Power Association http://www.r-p-a.org.uk/