UK 'to miss' renewable energy targets
Thursday, 19 Jun 2008 08:37
The UK is unlikely to meet its renewable energy targets, MPs claim
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The UK is likely to miss its renewable energy targets due to problems with funding and planning consent, MPs have warned today.
According to the innovation, universities, science and skills (IUSS) committee the current framework for the development of renewable technologies is inadequate.
The government wants to have ten per cent of electricity to be generated from renewables by 2010.
And if the UK is to meet its European Commission-mandated target for renewable energy, it is likely to be required to produce upwards of 35 per cent of its electricity from renewable technologies by 2020.
But in 2006 the percentage produced by these means was just 4.6 per cent.
The IUSS committee claims that renewables development is behind as the research funding landscape is too complex; the wait for planning consent is too lengthy; access to the electricity grid is too limited; and there is a shortage of people with the necessary skills to deliver renewable electricity-generation projects efficiently.
It says the government needs to show a "greater sense of dynamism and a clear strategy for progress".
To encourage individuals to help energy targets the MPs call for households who produce their own electricity through microgeneration technologies to be rewarded and for smart meters which are compatible with electricity microgeneration devices to be developed and rolled out to domestic consumers.
IUSS committee chairman Phil Willis said throughout its inquiry the committee had been "consistently disappointed by the lack of urgency expressed by the government – and at times by the electricity industry – in relation to the challenge ahead".
"We find it highly unlikely that given the current progress the UK will meet the government's ambition for ten per cent of electricity to be generated from renewables by 2010, let alone sufficient electricity to meet the EC mandated renewable energy target for 2020.
"It is immensely frustrating that on the one hand the government is encouraging the deployment of renewable technologies, but that, on the other, these technologies are unable to commence electricity generation due to a poorly conceived transmission access regime."
In response to the report Friends of the Earth called on the government to make the UK a world leader in green energy.
Friends of the Earth's energy campaigner, Robin Webster, said: "Next week's renewable energy consultation must set out a blueprint for a greener future.
"Britain's abundant wind and wave power could create a new industry worth millions of pounds and thousands of jobs, cut carbon dioxide emissions and wean us off our increasingly expensive fossil fuel dependency."
Dr Mark Williamson, director of innovations at the Carbon Trust, commented: "We support the committee's overall conclusion that significant progress needs to be made if we are to meet our 2020 renewable energy targets.
"The UK, while currently at a low base for renewables, has a fantastic opportunity to fast track the development of a number of key technologies, such as offshore wind and marine, and become a world leader. Not only will this deliver significant carbon reductions but it should also deliver significant economic returns for UK plc."