Concentrating Solar Power And The Creation Of A High Voltage Direct Current Supergrid

EDM number 123 in 2008-09, proposed by Howard Stoate on 04/12/2008.
Categorised under the topic of Renewable energy.

That this House recognises the great potential of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in desert regions as a source of clean energy for countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EUMENA); welcomes the Prime Minister's endorsement of CSP and its potential in his speech at the inaugural meeting of the Union for the Mediterranean; notes that CSP is already feeding electricity into the European transmission grid, that CSP plants are quick to build, and that the UK may benefit soon from this source of power via the existing grid; further notes that the existing grid may be upgraded with high voltage direct current technologies and smart electronics; further notes that the resulting supergrid would be a cost-effective means of promoting the security, efficiency and stability of electricity supplies throughout the region, and will in any case be needed for a single market for electricity and to provide access to large-scale but remote sources of renewable energy; and calls on the Government to promote these developments vigorously, to work with its international partners to remove overt and hidden subsidies for non-renewable sources of energy, to ensure that a proper price is paid for carbon dioxide emissions, to provide a system of support for renewable energy technologies that is harmonised across the region, to support existing moves to develop a single market for electricity throughout the EU, to extend that single market to EUMENA, and to put in place appropriate mechanisms for upgrading the transmission grid throughout the region.

This motion has been signed by a total of 179 MPs, 4 of these signatures have been withdrawn.