Rethink... energy

Rethink considers how we might take a different approach to issues that affect all of us, asking some of the brightest minds what we could do to make the world a better place.

This week, we're rethinking energy. The massive rise in the price of wholesale gas in 2022, and the subsequent rise in our household energy bills highlighted the need for the UK to have a secure, reliable and cheap energy supply.

So what choices do we have? UK fossil fuel reserves are dwindling, but we have offshore wind, and sunshine in the south. Renewable power is also cheaper than fossil fuels. In the first three months of 2024, the UK's wind, solar and other forms of renewable power generated just over half of our energy and by the end of September, coal had been phased out completely.

But there is still a long way to go before the UK is self-sufficient.

It can take as long as 15 years to connect a renewable power plant to the National Grid. A nuclear power station hasn't been completed in the UK for nearly 30 years Do we have enough power storage for cloudy or windless days? And industry and homes are still reliant on gas.

So how to we need to rethink energy to keep the lights on, charge our many devices and power our electric vehicles in the future? And if we get it right, what will be the rewards for everyone?

Presenter: Ben Ansell Producer: Ravi Naik Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors: Aoife Foley, Professor & Chair in Net Zero Infrastructure at the University of Manchester. Emma Pinchbeck, Chief Executive, the Climate Change Committee. Sam Richards, a former special advisor on energy to Boris Johnson, and now the Chief Executive of campaign group Britain Remade. Andrew Crossland, Associate Professor in practice at the Durham Energy Institute.