The Times
October 23, 2006
Paul Gollby, head of E.ON UK, talks to our correspondent about how to achieve the balance between meeting energy needs and safeguarding the planet
THEY say you shouldn’t take your work home with you, but Paul Golby, head of E.ON UK, the power company, is busy arranging to have a wind turbine strapped to his house near Statford-upon-Avon. It may smack of tokenism, and the generator will only supply about a third of his family’s energy needs, but Mr Golby says that it shows his commitment to taking seriously the planet-threatening issue of climate change.
His seems an anomalous position for the chief of an energy company, who readily admits that his industry is incentivised to sell more and more electricity and gas, at least at present. “I genuinely believe that climate change represents a grave threat,” he says. “We shouldn’t believe that we can afford to do nothing.”
In tabloid language, Mr Golby explains, the parameters of the energy debate are nuclear versus windmills and draught excluders. But as he is keen to tell people it should not be an “either or” debate.
“We have to do lots of these things in parallel if we are going to reduce the impact on the environment, preserve supplies and at least slow down the rate of increase in price,” he says. That means energy efficiency, distributed energy, gas, clean coal, nuclear and a whole range of emerging technologies, such as marine and solar power.
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