8.5/10 Brits Want More Clean Energy

… and what the heck is up with the other 1.5 out of 10?!

Also, showing the country’s extreme dislike for natural gas, while 85% of UK residents want more clean domestic energy, only 2% want more natural gas capacity! (Could it be the earthquakes?)

“Two thirds of people want more of their electricity to come from our wind, sun and sea — which the UK has huge supplies of — and just 2% of people back more gas,” Friends of the Earth, which commissioned the poll, writes.

“The poll marks the launch of our Clean British Energy campaign, backed by Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden.”

Currently, 9.5% of British electricity comes from renewable resources.

Photo: UK wind turbines via shutterstock

Zachary Shahan (2292 Posts)

I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on your favorite social network, go to: zacharyshahan.com

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/ Neil Blanchard

I cannot image that the 1.5 out of 10 want *dirtier* power; but maybe they don’t think there is a problem with the power we have?

Maybe it would make more sense to say 17 out of 20 people want cleaner power? I can’t imagine what is not to like about cleaner power. A burning turbine is not a problem, compared to a burning nuclear plant; or even a coal plant.

Neil
- Luke
  
  The blades spin, and apparently that is enough to put people off. Which is absolutely ridiculous.
  
  Yes – were going to stop our progress tackling climate change because you can see a small rotating object a few miles away. Absolutely f*g stupid.
  - http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
    
    That last comment made me laugh. Seriously, that is my response (non-verbally) every tie I hear about such ridiculous complaints — probably doesn’t help that I like how they look, but still… are we bloody idiots?
Luke

The problem is, they may all want clean energy – just not in their backyard. And since everywhere turns out to be someones backyard, the overall progress meter stays at close to zero. For example, while browsing information about the Atlantic Array, look what I found:

http://www.atlanticarray.co.uk/

P.S. I think EON Renewables should damn well take control of that web address – as it seems like an official project page just by looking at the URL.
- Hope
  
  A lot is media conditioning. The papers are frequently going off alarming about how ugly turbines are.
  The one turbine in Scotland that caught fire in gale force winds was front page news, as was the news that turbines will be installed on Royal land despite Prince Charles’ protestations about how ugly they are–his comments are usually treated with derision, now suddenly he’s an authority to be listened to.
  All that coupled with blatant opinion masquerading as information on the capabilities of wind and tidal and you have one woefully misled public.
Hope

And if you’re in the UK and want to support a company supporting renewables with real reinvestment of your money from your bills: ecotricity.co.uk