Renewable energy in the United Kingdom can be divided into the generation of renewable electricity, the generation of renewable heat and renewable energy use in the transport sector.
Renewable energy contributions to meeting the UK's 15% target reduction in total energy consumption by 2020, in accordance with the 2009 EU Renewable Directive, totalled 5.2% in 2013 as measured in accordance with the methodology set out in the Directive. By 2016 provisional calculations show that the figure had risen again to 8.3 per cent of energy consumption (all sources) coming from renewable sources in 2015.
Interest in renewable energy in the UK has increased in recent years due to new UK and EU targets for reductions in carbon emissions and the promotion of renewable electricity power generation through commercial incentives such as the Renewable Obligation Certificate scheme (ROCs) and Feed in tariffs (FITs) and the promotion of renewable heat through the Renewable Heat Incentive. Historically hydroelectric schemes were the largest producers of renewable electricity in the UK, but these have now been surpassed by wind power schemes, for which the UK has large potential resources.
History
Renewable heat energy, in the form of biofuels, dates back to 415,000 BP in the UK. Uranium series dating and thermoluminescence dating give evidence to the use of wood fires at the site of Beeches Pit, Suffolk.
Waterwheel technology was imported to the country by the Romans, with sites in Ikenham and Willowford in England being from the 2nd century AD. At the time of the compilation of the Domesday Book (1086), there were 5,624 watermills in England alone, only 2% of which have not been located by modern archaeological surveys. Later research estimates a less conservative number of 6,082, and it has been pointed out that this should be considered a minimum as the northern reaches of England were never properly recorded. In 1300, this number had risen to between 10,000 and 15,000.
Windmills first appeared in Europe during the Middle Ages. The earliest certain reference to a windmill in Europe (assumed to have been of the vertical type) dates from 1185, in the former village of Weedley in Yorkshire which was located at the southern tip of the Wold overlooking the Humber estuary. The first electricity-generating wind turbine was a battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by Scottish academic James Blyth to light his holiday home in Marykirk, Scotland.
In 1878 the world's first hydroelectric power scheme was developed at Cragside in Northumberland, England by William George Armstrong. It was used to power a single Arc lamp in his art gallery.
However, almost all electricity generation thereafter was based on burning coal. In 1964 coal accounted for 88% of electricity generation, and oil was 11%. The remainder was mostly supplied by hydroelectric power, which continued to grow its share of electricity generation as coal struggled to meet demand. The world's third pumped-storage hydroelectric power station, the Cruachan Dam in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, became fully operational in 1967. The Central Electricity Generating Board attempted to experiment with wind energy on the LlÅ·n Peninsula in Wales during the 1950s, but this was shelved after local opposition.
Renewable energy experienced a turning point in the 1970s with the 1973 oil crisis, miners' strike (1972), growing environmentalism and wind energy development in the United States exerting pressure on the government. In 1974, the Central Policy Review Staff made the recommendation that ‘the first stage of a full technical and economic appraisal of harnessing wave power for electricity generation should be put in hand at once.’ Wave power was seen to be the future of the nation's energy policy, and solar, wind, and tidal schemes were dismissed as 'impractical'. Nevertheless, an alternative energy research centre was opened in Harwell, although it was criticised for favouring nuclear power. By 1978, four wave energy generator prototypes had been designed which were later deemed too expensive. The Wave Energy Programme closed in the same year.
During this period, there was a large increase in installations of solar thermal collectors to provide hot water. In 1986, Southampton began pumping heat from the geothermal borehole through a district heating network. Over the years, several combined heat and power (CHP) engines and backup boilers for heating have been added, along with absorption chillers and backupvapour compression machines for cooling.
In 1987 a 3.7MW demonstration wind turbine on Orkney began supplying electricity to homes, the largest in Britain at the time. Privatisation of the energy sector in 1989 caused direct governmental research funding to cease. Two years later the UK's first onshore windfarm was opened in Delabole, Cornwall. The farm consists of 10 turbines and produces enough energy for 2,700 homes. This was followed by the UK's first offshore windfarm in North Hoyle, Wales.
The share of renewables in the country's electricity generation has risen from below 2% in 1990 to 14.9% in 2013, helped by subsidy and falling costs. Introduced on 1 April 2002, the Renewables Obligation requires all electricity suppliers who supply electricity to end consumers to supply a set portion of their electricity from eligible renewables sources; a proportion that will increase each year until 2015 from a 3% requirement in 2002-2003, via 10.4% in 2010-2012 up to 15.4% by 2015-2016. The UK Government announced in the 2006 Energy Review an additional target of 20% by 2020-21. For each eligible megawatt hour of renewable energy generated, a tradable certificate called a Renewables obligation certificate(ROC) is issued by OFGEM.
In 2007, the United Kingdom Government agreed to an overall European Union target of generating 20% of the European Union's energy supply from renewable sources by 2020. Each European Union member state was given its own allocated target; for the United Kingdom it is 15%. This was formalised in January 2009 with the passage of the EU Renewables Directive. As renewable heat and fuel production in the United Kingdom are at extremely low bases, RenewableUK estimates that this will require 35â€"40% of the United Kingdom's electricity to be generated from renewable sources by that date, to be met largely by 33â€"35 GW of installed wind capacity. The 2008 Climate Change Act consists of a commitment to reducing net Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 80% by 2050 (on 1990 levels) and an intermediate target reduction of 26% by 2020.
The Green Deal is UK government policy, launched by the Department of Energy and Climate Change on 1 October 2012. It permits loans for energy saving measures for properties in Great Britain to enable consumers to benefit from energy efficient improvements to their home.
Economics
Strike prices
The "strike price" forms the basis of the Contract for Difference between the 'generator and the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC), a government-owned company' and guarantees the price per MWh paid to the electricity producer. It is not the same as the Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) which is a first order estimate of the average cost the producer must receive to break-even.
Low-carbon generation sources have agreed "strike prices" in the range £50-£79.23/MWh for photovoltaic, £80/MWh for energy from waste, £79.23-£82.5/MWh for onshore wind, and £114.39-£119.89/MWh for offshore wind and conversion technologies (all expressed in 2012 prices). These prices are indexed to inflation.
With new interconnectors, specifically the ongoing construction of the NSN Link is expected to finish in 2020 after which the UK will get 1.4 GW of access to less expensive sources in the south Norway bidding area (NO2) of Nord Pool Spot. Similarly, Viking Link is expected to start operations in 2022, after which the UK will get another 1.4 GW of access to the less expensive west Denmark bidding area (DK1) of Nord Pool Spot.
Wind
Wind power delivers a growing fraction of the energy in the United Kingdom and at the beginning of January 2015, wind power in the United Kingdom consisted of 6,546 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of just under 12 gigawatts: 7,950 megawatts of onshore capacity and 4,049 megawatts of offshore capacity. The United Kingdom is ranked as the world's sixth largest producer of wind power, having overtaken France and Italy in 2012. Polling of public opinion consistently shows strong support for wind power in the UK, with nearly three quarters of the population agreeing with its use, even for people living near onshore wind turbines. Wind power is expected to continue growing in the UK for the foreseeable future, RenewableUK estimates that more than 2 GW of capacity will be deployed per year for the next five years. Within the UK, wind power is the second largest source of renewable energy after biomass. In 2016 Dong Energy is the UK’s largest windfarm operator with stakes in planned or existing projects able to produce 5 GW wind energy. Dong Energy's chief executive has confirmed plans to sell company’s oil and gas division.
2010 saw the completion of some significant projects in the UK wind industry with the Gunfleet Sands, Robin Rigg and Thanet offshore wind farms coming on stream. Over 1.1Â GW of new wind power capacity was brought online during 2010, a 3% increase on 2009. There was a 38% drop in onshore installations to 503Â MW compared with 815Â MW in 2009 but there was a 230% increase in offshore installations with 653Â MW installed (compared with 285Â MW in 2009).
Ocean power
Due to the island location of the UK, the country has great potential for generating electricity from wave power and tidal power.
To date, wave and tidal power have received very little money for development and consequently have not yet been exploited on a significant commercial basis due to doubts over their economic viability in the UK. The European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney operates a grid connected wave power scheme at Billia Croo outside Stromness and a grid connected tidal test side in a narrow channel between the Westray Firth and Stronsay Firth.
Funding for the UK's first wave farm was announced by then Scottish Executive in February 2007. It will be the world's largest, with a capacity of 3 MW generated by four Pelamis machines and a cost of over 4 million pounds. In the south of Scotland,investigations have taken place into a Tidal Power scheme involving the construction of a Solway Barage, possibly located south of Annan.
A Wave farm project to harness Wave power, using the PB150 PowerBuoy has been completed by Ocean Power Technologies in Scotland and is under development off Cornwall at Wave Hub.
Biofuels
Gas from sewage and landfill (biogas) has already been exploited in some areas. In 2004 it provided 129.3 GW·h (up 690% from 1990 levels), and was the UK's leading renewable energy source, representing 39.4% of all renewable energy produced (including hydro). The UK has committed to a target of 10.3% of renewable energy in transport to comply with the Renewable Energy Directive of the European Union but has not yet implemented legislation to meet this target.
Other biofuels can provide a close-to-carbon-neutral energy source, if locally grown. In South America and Asia, the production of biofuels for export has in some cases resulted in significant ecological damage, including the clearing of rainforest. In 2004 biofuels provided 105.9 GW·h, 38% of it wood. This represented an increase of 500% from 1990.
Solar
At the end of 2011, there were 230,000 solar power projects in the United Kingdom, with a total installed generating capacity of 750 megawatts (MW). By February 2012 the installed capacity had reached 1,000 MW. Solar power use has increased very rapidly in recent years, albeit from a small base, as a result of reductions in the cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels, and the introduction of a Feed-in tariff (FIT) subsidy in April 2010. In 2012, the government said that 4 million homes across the UK will be powered by the sun within eight years, representing 22,000 MW of installed solar power capacity by 2020.
Hydroelectric
As of 2012, hydroelectric power stations in the United Kingdom accounted for 1.67 GW of installed electrical generating capacity, being 1.9% of the UK's total generating capacity and 14% of UK's renewable energy generating capacity. Annual electricity production from such schemes is approximately 5,700 GWh, being about 1.5% of the UK's total electricity production.
There are also pumped-storage power stations in the UK. These power stations are net consumers of electrical energy however they contribute to balancing the grid, which can facilitate renewable generation elsewhere, for example by 'soaking up' surplus renewable output at off-peak times and release the energy when it is required.
Geothermal power
Investigations into the exploitation of Geothermal power in the United Kingdom, prompted by the 1973 oil crisis, were abandoned as fuel prices fell. Only one scheme is operational, in Southampton. In 2004 it was announced that a further scheme would be built to heat the UK's first geothermal energy model village near Eastgate, County Durham.
Microgeneration
Microgeneration technologies are seen as having considerable potential by the Government. However, the microgeneration strategy launched in March 2006 was seen as a disappointment by many commentators. Microgeneration involves the local production of electricity by homes and businesses from low-energy sources including small scale wind turbines, and solar electricity installations. The Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 is expected to boost the number of microgeneration installations, however, funding for grants under the Low Carbon Building Programme is proving insufficient to meet demand with funds for March 2007 being spent in 75 minutes. FiTs (Feed-in-Tariffs, aka "Clean Energy Cashback") were introduced from 1 April 2010 to support microgeneration of electricity. The Renewable Heat Incentive was introduced from 28 November 2011 to support microgeneration of heat from ground source heat pumps, solar thermal panels and biomass boilers, but only for non-domestic dwellings. The Government has plans to extend the RHI to domestic dwellings in 2013. The delay of introducing the RHI for renewable heat long after the subsidy for renewable electricity was introduced has dealt a savage blow to the renewable heat industries.
Community energy systems
Sustainable community energy systems, pioneered by Woking Borough Council, provide an integrated approach to using cogeneration, renewables and other technologies to provide sustainable energy supplies to an urban community. It is expected that the same approach will be developed in other towns and cities, including London. Highlands and Islands Community Energy Company based in Inverness are active in developing community-owned and led initiatives in Scotland.
An energy positive house was built in Wales for £125,000 in July 2015. It is expected to generate £175 in electricity export for each £100 spent on electricity.
See also
- Renewable energy in Scotland
- Renewable energy in the Republic of Ireland
- Wind power in the United Kingdom
- Solar power in the United Kingdom
- Biofuel in the United Kingdom
- Hydroelectricity in the United Kingdom
- Geothermal power in the United Kingdom
- Energy in the United Kingdom
- List of renewable resources produced and traded by the United Kingdom
- Renewable energy by country
- Renewable energy in the European Union
- Feed-in tariff
- Decarbonisation Measures in Proposed UK Electricity Market Reform
- Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
References
External links
- Sustainable Energy at DEFRA
- The UK Renewable Energy Strategy (official government policy)
- Planning Policy Statement 22 (PPS22) on renewable energy
- UK Renewables Policy.
- Small-scale Wind Power in the UK
- Britain's Old Industries See Renewable Boost
- Britain To Launch Innovative Feed-in Tariff Program in 2010
- Map of UK renewable power installations