Future Electricity Series Part 2 - Power from Renewables

Andrew Robertson; Fabrice Leveque; Rachel White; Baroness Worthington; Charles Hendry

Future Electricity Series Part 2 - Power from Renewables

GBP

By Andrew Robertson, Fabrice Leveque, Rachel White, Baroness Worthington and Charles Hendry
Source: Carbon Connect
Publication date: 04 September 2013
Publication type: Project document
Language: English
Status: Active Publication

Abstract

The independent, cross-party report highlights a ‘sensible middle ground’ in the renewables debate and calls for more effort in building cross-party consensus. It finds that the UK has only just begun to harness low carbon renewable resources bigger than North Sea oil and gas, and argues that the Government could do more to narrow the scope of debate about the technology mix beyond 2020. It argues that it should work with industry and academia, first to establish ‘low regrets’ levels of technology deployment, and second to ensure that policies are in place to incentivise investments, such as supply chain investment, needed to deliver these low regrets actions.
This approach would help provide the longer term clarity that could secure supply chain investments giving the UK a head-start in the global race. The report finds that these investments could be missed, delayed or more expensive if there is insufficient confidence about long term demand for key technologies, such as offshore wind. Work by Government to help incentivise these investments would increase the likelihood that technology cost reductions are achieved and help mitigate against high costs if new nuclear or carbon capture and storage development fail or are delayed.
On affordability, the report finds that there are ‘hidden’ benefits that the UK could see from investing more in renewables through electricity bills between now and 2020. These include: avoiding bill increases driven by fossil fuels; making electricity bills more predictable; and providing an economic boost. The extra money paid to support renewables and other low carbon generation such as nuclear power could be more than offset by energy efficiency savings, although Government needs to do more to show how these savings will arise.
On sustainability, the report tackles myths about the carbon emitted in manufacturing renewable technologies or in backing up varying technologies such as wind, solar, wave and tidal. It finds that even when considering these factors, renewables are still amongst the most low carbon options. The report also looks at the sustainability of electricity from biomass. Bioenergy overall could provide up to ten per cent of energy and reduce the cost of cutting carbon by £44 billion per year in 2050. The Government’s new biomass policies are a pragmatic response to concerns about the sustainability of biomass power, which balances protecting the environment, building public confidence and enabling the sector to grow.
On security of supply, the inquiry argues that debate should focus on the whole electricity system and that individual technologies should be considered in the context of how they add to or reduce system risks. Considered like this, renewables reduce some risks, such as fuel supply risks, which caused concern last winter, and add to others, such as system balancing risks. System balancing risks from varying renewables (wind, solar, wave and tidal technologies) are manageable using a number of existing and developing technologies.
The independent report, chaired by former Energy Minister Charles Hendry MP and Shadow Energy Minister Baroness Worthington, was compiled between May and September 2013, and was sponsored by Siemens and DONG Energy. It is part of a year-long, independent and cross party inquiry into the UK power sector, the Future Electricity Series, sponsored by the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers.
Link to Launch Video

Funding source: IGEM, Siemens, Dong Energy

Keywords: Bioenergy ; Energy demand and bills ; Renewable Energy ; Sustainability

Related subjects: Policy & Socio-Economics

Countries: United Kingdom

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2013-09-04

2024-10-30

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Supplements

Future Electricity Series Part 3 - Power from nuclear

Date:
March 18, 2014 12:00 AM
"This independent, cross-party report highlights the key role that political consensus can play in helping to reduce the costs of nuclear power in the UK, as well as other low carbon technologies. This political consensus has never been more important than in this ‘defining decade’ for the power sector. The report highlights that an immediate challenge facing the UK’s new build programme is agreeing with the European Commission a regime for supporting new nuclear power. Changing the proposed support package would not be an impossible task if made necessary, but maintaining broad political consensus and considering the implications of delay are also important. The State Aid process is an important opportunity for scrutiny, with the report demonstrating that shareholders for Hinkley Point C could see bigger returns (19-21%) than those typically expected for PFI projects (12-15%). However, it is too early to conclude on the value for money of the Hinkley Point C agreement. Both the negotiation process and the resulting investment contract are important, but there has been little transparency over either so far and the negotiations were not competitive. The inquiry calls for more urgency and better coordination in seizing the opportunity to reuse the UK’s plutonium stockpile. The UK’s stockpile of separated plutonium presents opportunities to tackle a number of national strategic priorities including implementing long term solutions for nuclear waste, developing new technologies that could redefine the sector, laying the ground for new nuclear power and pursuing nuclear non-proliferation. Government has identified three ‘credible solutions’ for reuse, and the report recommends that it now sets clearer criteria against which to assess options and identifies budgetary requirements to help expediate the process. The report also argues that Government should do more on new nuclear technologies that could redefine the sector – such as considering smaller reactors, nuclear for industrial heat or hydrogen production, and closed or thorium fuel cycles. The Government’s initial response to a review of nuclear R&D a year ago by the then Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir John Beddington, has been welcome, and it needs to build on this. In particular, the UK should capitalise upon its existing expertise and past experience to focus efforts where there is most strategic value. Nulcear waste. Having failed to date, the Government must urgently revisit plans for finding a site to store nuclear waste underground for thousands of years. Implementing this is a crucial part of demonstrating that nuclear waste is a manageable challenge. Despite being rejected by Cumbria County Council, the continuing strong support amongst communities in West Cumbria for hosting a site is a promising sign. On affordability, the report finds that it is not yet clear which electricity generation technologies will be cheapest in the 2020s and beyond. Coal and gas could get more expensive if fossil fuel and carbon prices rise, whilst low carbon technologies could get cheaper as technology costs fall with more deployment. This is the main reason for adopting an ‘all of the above’ strategy, including nuclear power, until costs become clearer, and there is broad consensus behind this general approach. On security of supply, the inquiry says that deployment of nuclear power is likely to be influenced more by the economics of system balancing rather than technical system balancing challenges, which can be met with greater deployment of existing balancing tools. The cost of maintaining system security is likely to mean that the UK maintains at least some baseload capacity, such as nuclear power, to limit system costs. On sustainability, the report finds that the environmental impacts of nuclear power are comparable to some generation technologies and favourable to others, although the long lived nature of some radioactive nuclear waste and the dual use potential of nuclear technology for civil and military applications create unique sustainability challenges, which the UK is a world leader in managing.

It is the final report of the Future Electricity Series, an independent and cross party inquiry into the UK power sector, sponsored by the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers. "