British Energy owned Sizewell B: Greenpeace drop a banner during the site's occupation in October 2002

Responding to today's first reading of the Electricity (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill - which will enable government to increase their stake in British Energy and to make unlimited funds available to the company - Greenpeace Energy Campaigner Jim Footner said,

"The Government is using this Bill to give itself free rein to pour unlimited amounts of public money into the bankrupt nuclear power company British Energy. This company has failed - its catalogue of crises prove that nuclear power is outdated and totally uneconomic. The bill shows how little faith the government has in its own restructuring plans. Despite repeated attempts to make British Energy competitive, no sensible investor is likely to go near it."

"Instead of throwing good money after bad, Government should shut the nuclear industry down and invest instead in the UK's vast renewable energy sources - like wind and wave power. The Government urgently needs to wake up and realise that nuclear power is not only uneconomic, unsafe and unpopular, it is also completely unnecessary."

Further information:
Contact:
The Greenpeace UK press office on 020 7865 8255

Your questions answered on solar electricity

Publication date: April 2000

Summary
Why is Greenpeace Campaigning for Solar Power? Greenpeace is campaigning to introduce solutions, which over time will end the use of fossil fuels - the major cause of climate change. Solar electric panels can generate pollution-free electricity in our towns and cities. The handful of buildings in the UK currently using solar electricity could, with Government and industry support, become millions.

Questions and Answers

Publication date: April 2000

Summary
What is net metering? Net metering is shorthand for getting paid the same price for each unit of electricity generated by a solar electric system and exported to the grid during daylight as the electricity company charges for each unit of its electricity that is imported from the grid when it is dark. This is equivalent to allowing a solar household's normal electricity meter to run backwards when solar power goes out from the house to the grid, although in practice it may be done by installing a second meter to measure electricity exports.