Sustainable Thornbury strongly believes that renewable energy generation is vital for the future of Thornbury, to make it sustainable and resilient. Renewable energy means electricity generated by wind, sun, tides and currents. Generating electricty from renewables is difficult and expensive, so the priority must be energy saving, both by making our buildings and machines more efficient and by working towards more efficient ways of lifestyles.
But however efficient we are, we still need energy. Gas, coal, oil and nuclear fuels are all in short supply and will cost more and more as they grow more scarce. Many experts say we have already passed peak oil, so oil production is falling while demand is rising. Gas, coal and nuclear all have problems (such as pollution and importing from unstable countries), and as we try to substitute for scarce oil they will soon become more scarce as well.
Renewables are relatively clean, will not run out, and cause almost no global warming. We need to be getting much of our energy from renewables well before fossil fuels get too expensive to use. Renewables are all getting cheaper, and potentially could become major industries for the UK.
There are many myths and misconceptions about wind power. Friends of the Earth has produced a briefing on some myths (PDF 243kB), and a short summary of the briefing (PDF 385kB).
There are many new technologies being developed, such as tidal lagoons and marine current turbines. These may be important later, but for the time being we have three proven and available technologies: