A new independent study by planning consultancy Arup suggests that the UK could produce over a third (35 per cent) of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.
As electric vehicles start to hit the roads in the UK, the question of how we meet the extra demand on electricity supplies they could create and how we make them truly ‘zero emission’ vehicles rear up again.
The new report entitled ‘Review of the generation costs and deployment potential of renewable electricity technologies’ was prepared by Arup for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to look at the potential of different ways of producing electricity from renewable sources.
The aim of the study to inform on the requirements for renewable subsidies for the Government’s Renewables Obligation (RO) and feed-in tariffs.
Studying renewables including on shore and off shore wind, hydro, tidal, solar, geothermal, biomass, and anaerobic digestion, the study estimates Britain’s capacity while also considering constraints such as planning laws, labour and equipment, materials and the cost of grid connection.
The report concluded that if constraints on grid connection, planning and supply are relaxed sufficiently, an additional 35 to 56GW of installed capacity could be reached by 2020 and a further 73 to 126GW by 2030.
Charles Hendry, Minister of State for Energy said: “It is vital that our support for renewable electricity both encourages investment and represents value for money for consumers.
“This study provides a detailed picture of generation costs and deployment potential for a wide range of technologies to inform our work in this area.”
