Community Energy Literature Review

Plans to capture solar energy from “solar farms” in space and beam it to earth were reported by Pallab Ghosh in a recent BBC news report (Ghosh, 2022). The article anticipated approval of a three-year feasibility and economic study aimed at eventually sending gigawatts of power to earth from space to help address future energy shortages. A few days later Olivia Allen reported that ESA, the European Space Agency, had approved plans for further research into Space Based Solar Power, SBSP (Allen, 2022). The project, known as SOLARIS, “will carry out research with the aim of developing huge orbiting satellites fitted with solar panels that can collect the sun’s energy and wirelessly beam it down to Earth.” Allen traces the concept back to the 1970s, but regards the technology as only now close to what is needed to realise the idea. Orbiting solar panels would receive continuous sunlight and so provide continuous power to receivers on earth, transmitting energy over a distance of 36,000km...

The draft agenda for a forthcoming conference of the Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum suggests some areas of concern regarding the future of the UK’s climate change policy (WEF, 2022). The three main agenda sections are “The Net Zero Strategy”; “Reducing emissions across key sectors”; and “Priorities for policy and governance in delivery at the domestic and international level”. Within these broad headings are some topics which will be considered here. They are the new energy windfall tax; The Climate Change Committee’s 2022 Progress Report to Parliament; Outcomes from COP27; the Environment and Climate Change Committee report; and the High Court ruling on the Government’s net-zero strategy. The new energy windfall tax The Prospect trade union commented on the windfall tax on electricity generators announced in the UK government’s autumn statement, describing it as a severe deterrent to new renewable energy projects ( Prospect, 2022). Renewable electricity gen...