Half of the UK’s electricity generation could be powered by renewables from the end of 2022 if the government creates the right policy environment, the Renewable Energy Association (REA) has said.
The trade body made the bold claim yesterday as it outlined a “green recovery roadmap,” detailing how the UK can reinvigorate its economy, create jobs and meet its decarbonisation goals.
The report forecasts that all of the country’s electricity generation could be from renewable resources, including wind and solar power, from 2032. As electricity consumption increases as Britons swap petrol and diesel cars for electric vehicles and natural gas boilers for electric heat pumps, renewable and clean technologies could expand to match this demand by 2035.
But more immediately, renewable resources could provide half of all electricity generation from as early as the end of next year.
Renewables made up 42% of the fuel mix last year, overtaking fossil fuels for the first time, according to an analysis from think tank Ember. With nuclear power in the mix, low-carbon resources regularly yield over half of the country’s electricity.
But advocates of renewables have long argued that renewables alone could be capable of generating that much electricity alone if the government would remove barriers to deployment, including lengthy planning processes and elevated VAT on domestic renewable installations, and promote energy efficiency.
The REA emphasised the need for a fit for purpose power grid. And it’s not just concentrating on electricity, saying the UK also needs a wide mixture of clean technologies to power it to net zero, including replacements for natural gas. Dry and wet anaerobic digestion, composting and energy storage “will be just as important as the emerging heat pumps… and hydrogen sectors,” the report argues.
However, many of these technologies lack a clear route to market, the trade body said, pointing to the closure of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for low-carbon heating projects, an “inadequate” Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme which excludes many technologies and the lack of “holistic” flexibility markets.
As the UK transforms its energy system, it could create nearly 200,000 jobs in the renewable energy and clean technology sector within the next fifteen years, the REA estimates. 157,000 of these jobs would be based in England, with 16,000 in Scotland and the remaining 16,000 split between Northern Ireland and Wales.
Dr Nina Skorupuska, chief executive of the REA, said: “It is now abundantly clear that the argument of an ‘either or’ choice between tackling climate change and providing an economic boost is over. Support for the renewable energy and clean technology sector will not only help the government reach its net zero ambitions, but it could deliver hundreds of thousands of new jobs and return billions of pounds worth of investment too.”
She noted that the change required is massive, comparable to the Industrial Revolution of the early 19th century and affecting “people’s homes, businesses and the very fabric of the nation.”
