INTERVIEW - UK faces struggle to meet green power goal
Date: 28-Sep-01
Country: UK
Author: Matthew Jones
"The government is being timid with its renewables support", David Byers, chief executive of the Renewable Power Association (RPA) which launches on October 8, told Reuters in an interview.
Byers said the government either needs to force suppliers to buy more green energy or it should increase penalties for those retailers which fail to buy green power. Possibly it needs to do both, he added.
Britain wants to increase the amount of energy generated from green sources to 10 percent in 2010 from around 2.8 percent at present.
The country's aim to boost the renewable industry is a key plank in plans to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, seen by many scientists as a contributor to global warming.
To encourage green power, the government recently launched the Renewables Obligation scheme which comes into force in January 2002 and compels power companies to supply three percent of sales from green sources next year, rising to 10.4 percent in 2011.
Under the scheme, renewable power plants will receive three pence per kilowatt (kWh) payment for their green electricity (in addition to the electricity sale price) while suppliers who buy the green power will be granted a tradeable Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC) as proof of purchase.
Byers noted the target in the first year for green generation was close to existing output, creating little incentive to build more renewable generation quickly. He said targets should be much higher in the early stages to kickstart projects.
"We fully support the ROC scheme, but we are concerned ROCs will not be sufficiently scarce to attract a strong premium", said Byers. "ROC prices will be higher if demand exceeds supply."
He added that if ROCs are sought after, demand for electricity from renewable plants will grow since suppliers without enough ROCs to match their electricity sales face financial penalties.
Britain generates only about 0.5 percent of its energy from wind power, solar, biomass, with hydropower making up the vast majority of the overall 2.8 percent figure for renewable power.
Byers said hydropower had limited potential as most suitable sites have been used and he saw wind and biomass as the two technologies likely to produce most growth.
"Britain is very rich in terms of renewable potential, but in terms of volume it has to be wind and biomass that will be the winners. Wave is a bit expensive and solar has some way to go", he said.
NETA, PLANNING REMAIN OBSTACLES TO RENEWABLES GROWTH
Byers said while the new Rewewables Power Association firmly backed government intentions to develop green energy, some of the actual policies appeared to do the reverse, including new electricity trading arrangements (NETA) introduced in March.
"NETA is severely damanging the sector", said Byers.
NETA penalises companies which cannot predict their output, such as wind farms.
Planning constraints continue to hinder renewable projects and Byers called for simpler procedures, saying they currently can involve 10 authorities in Britain against one in Germany. "British planning has put the country five years behind other countries and streamlining planning without steamrolling communities is a very desirable goal".