U.K. Outlines Renewable Energy Strategy

The U.K. government plans to invest heavily in offshore wind and marine power technology to help the country meet its renewable energy targets. The goals come as part of the government's new Renewable Energy Strategy white paper, which outlines how the U.K. will meet its European Union goals of generating 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. According to a report from Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, TX), the government says it is planning to invest more than £30 billion ($48.8 billion) in financial support for renewable electricity and heat projects between now and 2020.

However, there have been calls by energy groups for the government to back the plan with decisive action, while, just last week, the British Wind Energy Association revealed that England will probably fail to meets its renewable energy goals by 2010. As part of the strategy, the government has created the Office for Renewable Energy Deployment to overcome current planning bottlenecks and speed up the rollout of renewables. The U.K. is desperate to reduce its reliance on imported gas and claims that its renewables drive will allow it to reduce imports by half.

The U.K. has pledged to generate more than 30 percent of its power from renewables, up from just 5.5 percent today. The majority of this will come from offshore and onshore wind power, but newer green power alternatives like biomass, hydro, wave and tidal are expected to play an important role. To that end, the government has committed up to £120 million from low-carbon investment funding to significantly advance the offshore wind industry in the U.K. In addition, £60 million has been earmarked for investment in wave and tidal energy.

There will be an investment of up to £9.5 million in the Wave Hub sub-sea socket off Cornwall and up to a further £10 million to make the South West region of the country the U.K.'s first Low Carbon Economic Area and a "world centre for wave and tidal energy." About £10 million will go to the testing facilities at the National Renewable Energy Centre in Northumberland and another £8 million for the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkneys.

"Renewables, nuclear and clean fossil fuels are the trinity of low carbon and the future of energy in Britain," said Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband. "Under our plans, we will get 40 percent of our electricity from low carbon energy by 2020 and more in the years afterwards. Our plan will strengthen our energy security; it seeks to be fair to the most vulnerable; it seizes industrial opportunity; and it rises to the moral challenge of climate change. In five months, the world must come together at Copenhagen and follow through on the commitment of world leaders last week to stop dangerous climate change. Today we have shown how Britain will play its part."

Some groups want more than plans though, and there have been calls for the government to back up the white paper with swift action. Gaynor Hartnell, Policy Director of Renewable Energy Association, said: "We will be looking for hard policy content and rapid delivery timetables from Wednesday's documents. Time is of the essence. The encouraging rhetoric we are now hearing from Ed Miliband and the Prime Minister on the vital importance of our industry must translate into practical and rapid measures in these documents."

The government also announced the creation of a new Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. With seed money of £15 million, the centre will gather a consortium of 30 leading manufacturing companies to give them accreditation for producing nuclear components. Rolls Royce Group plc (London) has been selected to run the new operation.

One of the key hurdles to achieving the renewables goals will be in the creation of a smarter grid. The strategy white paper promises to create a smart grid for dealing with the variable power from renewable sources and a more detailed report on how this will be achieved is expected later this year. The country's energy regulator Ofgem has been tasked with developing incentives to encourage grid companies to invest the £4.7 billion required to create the smart grid.