Carbon Trust's Mark Williamson on the UK's renewable energy targets

Britain is leading the way by targeting an 80 per cent carbon emissions cut by 2050. But we also need interim targets and it’s vital we make significant progress by 2020. One high profile target is the EU requirement to produce 15 per cent of all the UK’s energy from renewable sources by 2020. This requires a massive change from where we are now, with only around two per cent of our energy currently coming from renewables. To understand how we can achieve this, we need to break the overall target down into its three key constituent parts: power, heat and transport.

We currently get around five per cent of our power, but less than one per cent of our heat supply and negligible amounts of a transport fuels from renewables. To get to 15 per cent overall, we need a step change in all three of areas. One possible scenario could see us generate over 35 per cent of our power, 10-15 per cent of our heat and 10 per cent of our transport fuels from renewables.

This is technically possible; we have the technologies, such as offshore wind and biomass heating, to deliver the scale of changes required. But, although we’ve made real progress in recent years, we still lack the coordinated action and momentum needed to deliver change on this scale. The UK cannot afford to invest in every low carbon technology option – we must focus on those that offer the most significant and economically viable opportunities.

Having prioritised where to direct our resources, we need to be bold and put in place a long-term policy framework that encourages massive private sector investment and ensures the necessary enablers are put in place, such as grid upgrades, port infrastructure and local supply chains.

It will take significant commitment from both Government and industry. But it’s possible and, more importantly, it’s essential if we are to make the UK a leading player in the new global low carbon economy and avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Unfortunately there is no one 'silver bullet' technology. To cut emissions, while still meeting our diverse energy needs, we need a portfolio of different solutions.

The easiest and most cost effective opportunity for saving carbon is improved energy efficiency – and there are significant opportunities for this in all parts of our economy, from manufacturing through to transport and buildings. The biggest barriers are lack of awareness and high capital costs – that’s why the Carbon Trust provides advice to organisations across the UK, plus interest-free loans to help smaller companies purchase energy efficient equipment.

We also need to generate clean energy. In the UK, the biggest current opportunity is in offshore wind, which could provide a quarter of our electricity needs by 2020, helping to create up to 70,000 new jobs, reducing the UK’s carbon emissions by 14 per cent and generating revenues of up to £8 billion every year for the UK alone.

To realise this potential, we urgently need to bring costs down for industry to invest at the required scale. To address this, the Carbon Trust has launched the Offshore Wind Accelerator, a £30 million research and development partnership with five of the world’s leading offshore wind developers. In April, we launched a multi-million pound global competition to find innovative new designs for cheaper foundations, capable of supporting turbines in the water depths found around the UK coastline.

Continued global demand to burn coal, particularly in the US and China, is another challenge. If we are to deliver a global low carbon economy we’re almost certain to need carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The UK and others are planning demonstration projects, but significant investment is required to test and prove this technology at scale.

And we mustn’t forget exciting new innovations further down the track, such as a new generation of organic solar cells, which has the potential to turn solar energy from an expensive niche to a mainstream solution. This is an area where the UK has world-class academic research. To help overcome the barrier of getting this exciting science successfully out of the lab and into market-ready products, the Carbon Trust is investing up to £10 million to create new commercially-focused ventures with the leading academic groups.
 
Carbon Trust's Mark Williamson on the UK's renewable energy targets