The Committee on Climate Change has published a renewable energy review. The report sets the Committee’s advice on the potential for renewable energy development in the UK, and advice on whether existing targets should be reviewed.
The Committee on Climate Change said, that renewable energy should make a major contribution to decarbonising the UK economy over the next decades.
The conclusions are set out in the Committee’s Renewable Energy Review which was requested under the Coalition Agreement.
The review concludes that a renewable energy share of around 30% by 2030 would be appropriate, with scope for a higher share (e.g. up to 45%) depending on the extent to which renewable technology costs fall and possible constraints on deployment of low-carbon alternatives.
It highlights a range of promising renewable energy technologies which could in future become competitive, including electricity generation from wind and marine, air and ground source heat pumps and the use of bioenergy for heat generation.
It sets out options for addressing intermittency of renewable power generation, including demand-side flexibility, interconnection, and back-up generation, which could support a very high share of renewables in power.
Analysis in the report highlights the importance of other low-carbon technologies for power generation, most notably nuclear and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), which have a potentially major role to play in required power sector decarbonisation to 2030.
The review concludes that nuclear generation in particular appears likely to be the most cost-effective form of low-carbon power generation in the 2020s (i.e. before costs of other technologies have fallen), justifying significant investment if safety concerns can be addressed. Gas CCS may be particularly useful in providing flexible generation.
Read full article here
Source: Committee on Climate Change
Report PDF here
The Forward from the review is reproduced below:
In May 2010, the Government asked the Committee on Climate Change to review the potential for renewable energy development, and to advise on whether existing targets should be reviewed. We were asked to provide advice in two steps:
(i) initial advice on whether the targets for 2020 should be raised;
(ii) subsequent more detailed advice on appropriate ambition beyond 2020.
In September 2010 we delivered our initial advice in a letter to the Secretary of
State. We recommended that the 2020 target should not be increased but that
policy should focus on ensuring that this stretching target is met.
In this report we set out our conclusions on the potential for renewable energy – in electricity, heat and transport – in the period to 2030 and beyond.
The report complements the conclusions and recommendations of our December
2010 report, The Fourth Carbon Budget – reducing emissions in the 2020s, which set out our recommendations for the fourth carbon budget. Later this year, we will publish a further report looking in particular at bioenergy. This will complete the Renewable Energy Review and will form part of our broader advice on inclusion of aviation and shipping in carbon budgets, as required under the Climate Change Act, and to be published in spring 2012.
