UK Prime Minister Liz Truss lifted the moratorium on fracking and increased oil and gas licensing in the North Sea due to the country’s ongoing energy crisis.
But a sustainable energy specialist has proposed eliminating daylight savings time as a method for Britain to cut energy costs without using additional fossil fuels.
In the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s University, Belfast, professor Aoife Foley said in a statement that by simply skipping the winter Daylight Savings Time (DST) in October,
we save energy because it is brighter in the evening during winter, so we reduce commercial and residential electrical demand as people leave work earlier and go home earlier, meaning less lighting and heating is needed.
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Foley estimated that households might save more than 400 dollars per year and 1.20 dollars per day if Daylight Savings Time were repealed. The National Grid is currently under stress as energy demand peaks in the winter between 5 and 7 in the evening.
She claimed that eliminating daylight savings would also benefit commercial and industrial sectors, yet her estimates did not account for gas savings or commercial or industrial energy use.
For the public and enterprises who are already struggling financially, there would be even greater savings in energy use, costs, and emissions, she claimed.
Standard Time Time was first used in warfare, specifically, World War I, to conserve energy. It was created in 1916 to increase the length of the morning daylight. The final Sundays of October and March currently mark the time change in the majority of EEC nations.
The context of Foley’s plan is another conflict, this one caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has impeded the delivery of energy to Europe. According to the Independent.ie, EirGrid in Ireland warned that it was conceivable for this winter to potentially have blackouts.
In Europe, we are no longer experiencing an energy crisis; rather, we are engaged in an energy war. Depending on the winter’s weather, it is very likely that we will need to seriously consider energy rationing in order to prevent more serious energy problems in December and January when gas reserves begin to deplete.
We would undoubtedly save a lot of energy, money, and carbon emissions if we didn’t observe daylight savings time in the winter, especially if there was a rising cost of living.
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Many nations have argued whether reversing the clocks in the spring and the fall is still necessary. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the U.S. Senate passed legislation outlawing the practice in March, but the House has not yet passed a measure of a similar nature.
According to a story in The Guardian, the majority of people in the European Union favor ending the time shift. Even if legislation to that effect was passed by the European Parliament in 2019, it has not yet been put into action.
With Brexit, the UK would no longer be subject to EU actions, which is where Foley’s suggestion comes in. Ireland presents a challenge, as it may wind up with two separate time zones if the UK, to which Northern Ireland belongs, or the Republic of Ireland votes to shift while the other does not.
Foley said it would be excellent if the UK government held talks with the Irish government about an urgent plan to end daylight savings time this year. It would be impossible for Ireland to have two separate time zones, but it would also save energy, reduce emissions, and improve supply security.
Should the UK Discontinue Daylight Savings Time in Winter to Save Energy?
