'Industrialise' countryside with wind farms or face blackouts by 2016 – Government energy adviser

Large swathes of the British countryside will have to be "industrialised" to generate enough alternative energy to prevent blackouts by 2016, according to a key Government adviser.

By John BinghamPublished: 2:23PM BST 11 Sep 2009

David MacKay: 'industrialise' countryside or face blackouts
Prof David MacKay, the newly appointed chief scientific adviser at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc), warned that the UK is on course to begin running out of power within seven years because new energy sources are not being built fast enough.
The Cambridge University scientist blamed public opposition to new wind farms and nuclear power stations for the looming crisis which he said could force Britain to rely on buying in electricity from abroad.

His admission throws fresh doubt on the Government's assertion that renewable energy sources will be able to make up the difference as old coal fired power stations are closed for environmental reasons and the number of nuclear plants also dwindles.
The Daily Telegraph disclosed earlier this month that up to 16 million homes could experience power cuts by the middle of the next decade, raising the prospect of rolling blackouts.
A European directive has set a deadline of 2015 for older coal-fired power stations to close, and all but one of Britain's nuclear power plants will have shut by the early 2020s.
Government targets which aim to see 40 per cent of Britain’s energy needs met by wind, solar and other green sources by 2020 have been dismissed as hopelessly over optimistic by commentators.
Power companies have already indicated that they would consider building new gas-fired plants to meet the shortage despite the need to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
Prof MacKay, author of the book “Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air”, said that it was a choice between an “enormous” building programme and turning large areas of land over to wind and solar facilities or growing crops for biofuel.
“If we want to have a plan that mainly relies on renewables, then we need to be imagining industrialising really large tranches of the countryside,” he said.
“Or, if we don't want to industrialise our countryside, other people's countryside – places with lots of sunshine and places that can do a good job of growing energy crops more productively than us.
“If we don't want to industrialise the whole countryside, then we have a big building project to build the alternative to renewables, which is nuclear and so-called clean coal, which is as yet an unproven technology.”
Greg Clark, the Conservative shadow Energy Secretary, said: “Ministers' response to this reality has been utterly complacent – even as power cuts loom, they attempt to deny the problem instead of acting to resolve it.”
Lord Hunt, the energy minister, said: "We've hired David Mackay as our chief scientific adviser because of his insight and ability to explain really clearly and with scientific rigour the challenges we face as individuals, communities and as a country when it comes to moving to low carbon energy.
"We are totally focused on these challenges and on energy security and as a result of Government action 10 gigawatts worth of new energy projects are being built now - enough to power 10.5 million homes - with another 10.5gw more having received planning permission."
Nick Rau of Friends of the Earth, said: "Too many local authorities are turning down renewable energy developments that this country needs.
"New government planning guidance is desperately required to ensure the creation of allow carbon economy."