Properly supported investment in renewables could generate hundreds of thousands of jobs, restructure our relationship with energy production through decentralisation and community control, radically cut emissions of carbon dioxide and in the medium to long term, significantly lower energy bills. The technology is already powering thousands of homes across the UK, and enjoys overwhelming public support.

• Recent polling by YouGov found that 55% of people want more windfarms, compared to just 17% who want more gas power stations.
• An ICM poll found that more than two-thirds of people would rather have a wind turbine than a shale gas well near their home.
• The Independent Committee on Climate Change found it feasible for 65% of electricity to be generated by renewables by 2030.
• WWF’s Positive Energy report found that up to 88% of the UK’s electricity could be renewable by 2030, with electricity connections and trading.
• At one point in September this year 64% of Spain’s electricity was being generated by wind power, and over the whole of this year renewables have generated almost a third of Spanish electricity.
• Germany is producing 25% of its electricity with renewable energy, with wind power accounting for 9.2% of all energy output.
• In Germany 65% of renewables are owned by individuals or communities: in the UK the figure is less than 10%.
• The Offshore Wind Valuation Group found that harnessing just 29% of the practical offshore renewable resource by 2050 would generate the electricity equivalent of 1 billion barrels of oil annually, matching North Sea oil and gas production and making Britain a net electricity exporter.
• Ofgem has found that without renewables investment bills will rise 60% through to 2020, compared to a 14% rise with investment.
• The CBI recently calculated that the green economy contributed a third of economic growth in 2010-11, employing 940,000 people. Two-thirds of these are outside London and the south-east therefore helping to rebalance the economy. It also noted the UK green goods and services run a trade surplus of £5bn a year.
• Over 50% of the offshore wind supply chain will be UK based by 2020. The more we commit to building renewables the larger the UK jobs benefits will be.
• The CBI also recently warned that “the UK’s rising energy trade deficit, as North Sea oil and gas production declines, will increase the need to find alternative sources. Diversifying towards renewable energy will both decrease energy imports and stimulate business investment.” Gas imports account for 7.5% of the UK trade deficit.
• A report by Oxford Economics for the Department of Energy and Climate Change recently found that: “high and volatile energy prices have a negative effect on the economy of a fossil-fuel importing country such as the UK: they dampen economic activity and they lead to an increase in the price level and potentially an increase in the inflation rate.”