Can Microgeneration ensure environmental sustainability?
The Millennium Goals brought about a great wave of change to the ways in which countries go about conducting their internal and external policies – the UK included. Paradoxically Goal 7, which strives to alert countries to the importance of ensuring environmental sustainability, has been shrouded in controversy. While many perceive it as an idealistic stab at launching a green revolution, no individual has volunteered to take up the sword of microgeneration and lead the rest in to battle, rather looking at governments to take action.
Most governments have, in fact, taken steps to meet the target set by Millennium Goal number 7, but the UK, many argue, has not done enough to meet its neighbours’ clean standards. There is a fair question to be asked that if the government is not doing enough, can the citizens be expected to overcompensate?
Over the past two years, the UK has taken various steps to catch up with the rest of Europe in the race to reach the ambitious millennium target by 2015, in particular by setting up a Microgeneration Strategy. This aims to offer Zero- and Low- Carbon solutions for domestic homes, businesses, and communities, with specific targets that demand that by 2016 all new homes in the UK should be zero-carbon, whereas the same applies to non-domestic buildings by 2019. While that’s a few years later than the Millennium goals dictate, it is definitely a start as the UK is taking the first step in a new direction.
So what do these microgenerators actually entail? The answer lies in solar panels and windmills, or other small energy generators. With small solar and wind generator equipped to buildings, small home owners as well as larger businesses should be able to produce and supply energy on a local scale from renewable resources, making them self-sufficient. The Guardian argues that based on the DBERR report, Microgeneration might even be a rival to nuclear power.
Microgenerators are therefore highly beneficial for certain dwellings, particularly those with no access to the main gas network. Additionally, this newly acquired self-sufficiency of households, businesses, and communities reduces their dependency on central power networks. Not to mention that we are able to help lead the new ‘clean revolution’ and make our own contribution to making the world a greener, cleaner place.
Microgenerators systems also have disadvantages in the way that they are not necessarily accessible to everyone. Microgeneration is not suitable for a minority of homes, whereas some business establishments such as shops have little access to this technology at all. Moreover, since microgenerators are a quite modern development, there are still only few specialists who know how to install a private energy producing unit. Microgenerators are not exactly cost-friendly either, which reaffirms the old argument that the future of sustainable development will not begin until costs fall significantly.
Is microgeneration the best path for a more sustainable planet? Government officials, such as Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks, agree that it is. More government backing in the form of education about microgeneration as well as financial support schemes will increase the idea’s viability in the public eye. The fact that this scheme has the potential to decrease CO2 emissions on a massive scale should be convincing enough for many, but for those who are unwilling to loosen their purse strings just yet, recycling is the next best solution.
