Government plans could see renewable energy replace fossil fuels as the main energy source for the UK
Charlie Giblin
Renewable Energy, Power & Infrastructure Executive Search l Director at Mint selection
Planned Government deal could see a third of British electricity generated from offshore wind by 2030.
If the plan does go ahead, industry representatives say it would create a situation where more electricity is generated directly from renewables than fossil fuels for the first time ever. This would equate to 70% of total electricity coming from a low-carbon source of energy.
At present, the offshore wind industry provides only 7% of British energy, but the new plan would see this climb to 30% by 2030. Despite the promising plans, there are some concerns regarding the sheer level of development required. Some environmentalists believe renewable energy would have to be scaled significantly more than planned due to the lack of development with the government's ambitious nuclear construction projects.
The Government has stated that this transition towards renewable energy would generate an additional 27,000 jobs within the national energy market. The Energy Minister, Claire Perry explains that the proposed deal would generate a rise in clean and offshore wind development, driving more investment into coastal hubs and ensuring the UK maintains its lead in the offshore market.
The proposed deal will include increasing the involvement of UK businesses in offshore wind projects to a rate of 60%, ensuring the government funding of ï¿¡557 million in subsidies completely benefits local communities. A further investment of ï¿¡250 million from industry will be added to the pot and will support British businesses in expanding their work in new areas such as floating wind sites, bigger turbines and robotics.
The Government announced that along with the proposed deal, they will allocate over ï¿¡4 million for British companies to support other nations, including Indonesia and Pakistan to move away from coal-powered facilities and increase offshore wind projects. The Government has also stated they intend to focus on reducing the overall cost of offshore wind development which has already reduced significantly in recent years and aims to move towards a subsidy-free system in the future.
It has been confirmed that the Crown Estate will release new seabed land this year for future offshore wind projects. Lawrence Slade, the chief executive of Energy UK explains the deal will strengthen the existing position of the UK as a global leader in the offshore wind market. Slade highlights that the offshore wind market has already proven to be a big success for the UK, generating thousands of skilled jobs, billions of pounds in investment, and generating clean energy at reduced rates for its customers.
Industry organisation, Renewable UK explained their take on the deal, suggesting that it really focused on generating opportunities for a wide range of people needed to fill a new workforce. Environmental organisation Greenpeace did, however, highlight their concern with the deal and the focus strategies for managing climate change, referring to nuclear power and carbon-capturing technology. Greenpeace believes that in reality, renewable energy will have to be scaled up far more than is currently intended. John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK points to the UK nuclear industry and how the government plans to construct a fleet of new nuclear sites has literally failed. This has resulted in a massive energy gap for the nation to fill and Greenpeace is concerned whether renewable energy can meet these demands without being scaled up considerably. Sauven refers to the latest offshore wind target and suggests that this would not be enough to meet this ‘energy gap’.
Renewable energy clearly offers the best opportunity for cleaner and cheaper energy and a quicker path towards a low carbon future. Sauven highlights that wind and solar industries need to be accelerated further and effectively tripled from now until 2030, with a significant focus on expanding the offshore wind market.
Chief Executive at INTERCEM Conferences
5 å¹´Unfortunately, the ability of the UK Government to deliver on the most fundamental of tasks is severely limited. In my view the more likely 20 year?scenario is a roll back of renewable energy resources which are renewable in name only and a return to fossil fuel usage that reflects the realistic need of a growing global population.? The issue of climate change is a lot more complicated than putting up a few wind farms
If we want to have any chance of controlling climate change, every country will need to do this.
Offshore Wind O&M / STEM Ambassador / Born 328.13 ppm CO2
5 å¹´...and whilst it's good they are getting behind this it is too little and too slow. There are renewables projects ready which are either being downscaled or may miss out entirely in this years auction due to constraints applied by the uk government. Every year we delay reducing carbon emissions results in increased risk of not keeping within 1.5 degrees so let's all push for greater ambition!!!!
I love solving chunky problems and making a positive Impact. Board Member. Keynote Speaker. Creator of the Good Business blog. ??
5 å¹´Hi Charlie, thanks for sharing this. Some great statistics there and really positive to see the trend towards more low carbon generation. For me, the missing bit is reliable Transmission- and Distribution-connected storage. I know there's a lot of work on co-location as well as btm storage but it'll be great to get more diverse (not Li battery) storage capacity to deal with constraints and balancing at system level.