Tory plans for home power sources
December 6, 2007
Homeowners would be encouraged to generate their own energy under plans to be announced by the Conservatives.
The party wants to encourage more small-scale electricity generation at homes, schools and hospitals in a bid to tackle climate change.
The Tories' new energy policy would make it easier for people to buy and install renewable power equipment.
The plans would also allow homeowners to sell the generated electricity to energy companies at a fixed price.
The Conservatives say much of the electricity Britain's big power stations create is wasted, lost travelling along the wires to the consumer.
Expensive technology
They claim it would be more efficient to get people to make their own energy using, for example, biomass, solar or the combined heat and power boilers that will be on the market in a few years' time.
Because the technology is expensive, the Tories are proposing to force energy companies to take electricity from domestic and other small-scale generators, and guarantee a fixed price for several years.
BBC environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee says this kind of "feed-in tariff" has been successful in increasing small-scale renewable power in other European countries.
However, industry experts say while the Conservatives have come up with some interesting ideas, they could take decades to come to fruition.
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