Renewable Energy Strategy – proposals to increase the use of sustainable energy
The UK Renewable Strategy has been published by John Hutton, Industry Secretary, which outlines proposals to increase the amount of sustainable energy, produced from wind farms in particular.
An investment of £100 billion is needed to ensure that Britain reaches the EU target of increased ‘green’ energy production by 2020. The scale of this proposal has been likened to a new Industrial Revolution, with urgency created by the 12 years left until the deadline.
One of the barriers to this initiative is access to the National Transmission Network, which is operated by National Grid plc. At this stage, wind farms wait around a decade to supply homes and businesses. Connections in the transmission lines must be built to enable electricity from wind farms to be utilised when needed.
Mr Hutton is expected to outline a “feed-in tariff” as an incentive to switching energy resources which would allow households that generate surplus electricity to sell it back through the National Transmission Network.
The industry regulator, Ofgem, could be given more authority to encourage the implementation of low carbon schemes, and it has been claimed that planning processes will be accelerated to remove further barriers.
This move by the government is in response to the EU policy on carbon emissions. The government has agreed to reduce carbon emissions by 60% by 2050, and to produce 15% of energy from renewable resources by 2020.
This should bring optimism for households after high coal, gas and oil prices; although Mr Hutton did concede that there would be “relatively modest” investment costs. He commented that these would be necessary if Britain took seriously the issue of climate change and using green technology.
The strategy published this week is a consultative document, and therefore the issues raised have yet to become fixed policies, however, it is likely that the principle of what they stand for will be implemented in time. Homeowners who are interested in changing their source of energy supply from fossil fuels to utilising renewable technology, should consult our Energy Efficient Central Heating website area, or alternatively, please complete our online enquiry form to request specific information. PH Jones provides solar energy, ground source heat pumps and air source heat pumps, to provide hot water or heating.
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