Each time we build a new house with conventional energy sources, we add to the problem and miss an opportunity to make the target more achievable. If new houses were equipped with solar panels, satellite-dish-sized windmills or home heat and power generators instead of ordinary boilers that would make a huge difference.

Putting enough solar panels on to power an average home for the parts of the day and year when there is enough natural light could knock 10% off the carbon output each year. A dish-sized windmill could knock 20% off the carbon; and a home heat and power generator in place of a boiler could reduce carbon emissions from a large-ish new house by over 25 %.

As Woking Borough Council have shown in England, 75% reductions in CO2 emissions can be brought about by community heat and power solutions, whilst reducing overall energy costs to the consumer. They and other councils are also beginning to show huge differences can be made if public sector buildings use more efficient and renewable sources of heat and power – although there is at present little sign of any systematic effort to achieve this effect in national government.

In Denmark, largely because of community-generated heat and power schemes, 50% of all electricity is locally generated, with vast effects on carbon emission.

Such steps would actually be economically advantageous. The extra cost of putting in a home heat and power generator rather than an ordinary boiler is £600 (and likely to come down over time). If the annual saving on energy bills is about £150 a year, it doesn’t require a mathematical genius to work out that, as well as being green, the householder would have paid back the cost over 4 years and would significantly reduce the cost of a 25-yr mortgage.

This news release is from Oliver Letwin MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, who was commenting on the recent housebuilding data issued by Government (15August2005).