Over 60 people attended a panel discussion on energy issues for Jersey, held in the Members’ Room on Tuesday 27th May at Pier Road.
Deputy for St Brelade and former Environment Minister, Jonathan Renouf, introduced the need for decarbonisation and explained how sustainable energy generation has been going from strength to strength in recent years and how it has demonstrated its cost effectiveness compared to fossil fuel generation.
Mr Chris Ambler, Chief Executive of Jersey Electricity plc, introduced the audience to the benefits of solar power, and the JEC’s efforts to increase capacity in Jersey, in order to increase energy security and to complement the diverse energy sources currently acquired by the JEC.
Dr Mark Leybourne, an international expert in offshore wind, shared his knowledge about offshore wind and how it could be of great benefit to Jersey and the wider Channel Islands.
Mr Greg Morel, a marine expert, then introduced the developing subject of tidal energy generation, a topic of potential benefit to high energy tidal environments such as Jersey, of which he introduced the audience to several installations around Europe.
The presentations were followed by extremely interesting questions from the audience.
Our thanks go to the speakers for giving up their time for such a topical and interesting subject, and to the audience for the many well considered questions.
Chair Environment Section : John Pinel
