Small scale renewable energy could provide 6% of Britain's electricity by 2020
Tuesday, 08 December 2009 14:09
Friends of the Earth have revealed that small-scale renewable energy could provide 6% of Britain's electricity needs by 2020 if the government improves the terms of a new deal for producers that is due to be launched in April 2010.
The environmental campaign group has said that introducing the more ambitious scheme than that currently proposed by the government would cost on average £2.37 per household on annual electricity bills for four years. The government is currently proposing to add £1.17 for the scheme. These costs to UK households were calculated from figures obtained from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and were processed by consultants Poyry and Element Energy.
European countries have had great success with introducing Feed in Tarriffs (FIT's) as a means of giving support to renewable energy sectors. However in the UK the Treasury and Ofgem are concerned with the potential cost of committing to the more ambitious FIT scheme which is being encouraged by Friends of the Earth.
Friends of the Earth and the Renewable Energy Association (REA) have said that the governments proposed return on investments of 5-8% is too low to encourage investors to take a risk with the new market of renewable energy.
The government has a target of 2% for energy generated from small-scale renewables by 2020. Friends of the Earth say the investment return needs to be around 10% to encourage potential investors, as this would compensate for the perceived risk of this sector.
The DECC figures used by Friends of the Earth showed that the more ambitious terms of 10% return would result in the generation of 25 terawatt hours of electricity by 2020 and cut UK carbon emissions by 10m tonnes a year by this date.
Friends of the Earth say that such a move would also result in less dependence on unsustainable, increasingly expensive fossil fuels, thus increasing the UK's energy security.
