The alternatives to coal for electricity generation

For 2014-15, 26.7% of UK electricity was generated from coal, 29.7% from gas, 22.2% from nuclear,19.3% from renewables and 2.1% from other sources. Coal is the most prolific carbon emitter, so the argument goes that we should replace it. The question is with what?

Liberal Democrats, and particularly Scottish ones, are grappling with the question over whether to oppose fracking outright. Leaving aside new forms of energy (and leaving aside carbon capture), the decision on how to replace coal for electricity generation seems quite simple: gas, or nuclear, or renewables; or a combination of the three.

All three are possible, the technology is there. Frack and we maintain or grow gas, or invest in new nuclear, or erect more wind turbines and solar panels.

A decision between the three is a political decision. It depends on your commitment to the green agenda and tackling climate change, your receptiveness to lobbying from the oil and nuclear industries and your view of short and long term costs.

For me, the goal is to have a form of energy that we can all use that is 100% zero carbon. That energy is will be electricity -indeed, you can already as a domestic consumer buy 100% renewable electricity.

In the last 5 years, the single biggest change in our energy generation has been renewables, entirely, we now see, because the Lib Dems ran the Department for Energy and Climate Change for 5 years. During this period,electricity from renewables had gone from about 7 to 19%.

If we were still in government, by 2020 renewables would account for about 35% of all electricity generation. But as we are not, it will probably level off at 20-25%. Winning in politics matters!

This article does not deal with industrial use of gas, nor of maintaining the domestic gas grid - though I note that newly built homes generally don't offer gas. If those in favour of fracking want to make the case for fracked gas for the domestic and industrial grid, I look forward to reading it.

For Liberal Democrats who are committed to reducing climate change, our first aim is to replace coal with renewables, and our second aim 10 years away is to replace gas with renewables. Fracked gas has no place in our long term electricity generation.

* William Hobhouse is on the board of Liberal Reform and is co-founder of the Lib Dem Campaign for Manufacturing.