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British Renewable Target Very Hard to Hit - E.ON UK |
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| UK: January 31, 2008 | ||
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LONDON - Britain will find it very hard to hit the renewable energy target set for it by the European Commission last week, the head of giant power utility E.ON UK said on Wednesday.
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The Commission, allocating national targets in order to meet the 20 percent overall goal agreed by environment ministers last March, said on Jan. 23 Britain must get 15 percent of its total energy supply from renewables like wind and waves by 2020. "That is going to be exceptionally challenging," E.ON chief executive Paul Golby told Reuters after giving evidence on renewable energy to a parliamentary committee. "Getting 15 percent of energy from renewables translates into getting 35 to 40 percent from electricity. We are nowhere near that and the obstacles getting there are formidable." Britain currently gets barely two percent of its energy from renewables, primarily wind power, which translates as about five percent of its electricity. The drive for more renewable energy comes as scientists say global average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to carbon gas emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport. Golby said there were multiple obstacles in the way of Britain increasing seven-fold the contribution of renewables to the total energy mix. "The planning system needs to be thoroughly overhauled. It is delaying projects. We have already had 18 months of delays on the London Array because of the planning process," he said. The London Array in the Thames estuary, approved by the government in Dec. 2006, will be the world's largest offshore wind farm generating one gigawatt of electricity when it is finally built. But a series of local challenges have slowed progress dramatically. The government is in the throes of streamlining the planning process to speed decision-making, particularly for large scale energy and infrastructure projects, but the reforms will not be in place until next year. But that is not the only obstacle to renewables. Simple supply of components is also likely to be a major headache. "The world is waking up to renewables and demand for items like turbines is booming. At the moment there isn't the capacity to meet demand," Golby said. Major equipment manufacturers are expanding their facilities, but much more is needed if the lack of supplies is not to be a significant brake on expansion of renewables. In Britain, there is also a potential problem with the national grid electricity supply network, Golby said. Not only are there difficulties and major expenses for new suppliers to connect to the grid, but the system is not designed to cope with large amounts of intermittent power supplies, set up instead to cope with major single source power stations. (Editing by James Jukwey)
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Story by Jeremy Lovell
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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