Beyond the silver bullet

So in his search for a silver bullet to cut the cost of energy, our energy minister has turned to Local Energy Markets. We like to think that we are considerably ahead of the curve with our thoughts and work in this area.

The minister said: 'I want local energy markets to take off just in the way the local food economy is growing. Just as people look to buy locally I want residents to adopt a local mindset for community scale renewables. Licence Lite is being pioneered by the Greater London Authority, but I want to use that learning to roll this out around the country. I want to allow a new generation of small-scale local power producers to cut through the current complex electricity market regulations and sell direct to customers. Cutting red tape and bureaucracy to let in the electricity entrepreneurs is the way forward.'

While we admire the GLA for its pioneering work on Licence Lite, we think it should go further. Our model for a Local Energy Market that is truly local and really a market would give consumers the independence they need, and support cost reductions across the system. We think that in our adventurous business model, we have the golden bullet.