Towards a Net Zero energy future
High Penn solar farm near Calne
This month, the government unveiled its long overdue Energy White Paper, setting out its plans for a ‘decisive and permanent’ shift away from fossil fuels. This was the latest in a recent slew of policy announcements which also included the Committee on Climate Change’s Sixth Carbon Budget and the government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.
To achieve our target of Net Zero emissions by 2050, the White Paper states we will need to slash emissions from industry, transport and buildings by 230 million metric tonnes over the next 10 years - equivalent to taking 7.5 million petrol cars off the road permanently. It’s a big ask, but looks to be achievable.
Wind and solar
While nuclear power grabbed most of the headlines, with a controversial proposal to invest taxpayers’ money in Sizewell C nuclear reactor in Suffolk – seemingly at odds with energy policy that prioritises “affordability” for consumers – the government also restated its firm commitment to renewables.
The recent Ten Point Plan may have focused on the newer and sexier technologies, from hydrogen to small modular nuclear reactors, but the White Paper makes it clear that these will be complementary to the long-established, proven energy generation technologies that are helping bring down consumers’ bills.
“Onshore wind and solar will be key building blocks of the future generation mix, along with offshore wind. We will need sustained growth in the capacity of these sectors in the next decade to ensure that we are on a pathway that allows us to meet net zero emissions in all demand scenarios.”
Capacity growth
Its energy models suggest capacity growth of an additional 80 – 120 GW of new solar by 2050. These numbers align with the Sixth Carbon Budget from the Committee on Climate Change, the government’s policy advisers, which stated that the UK should target 85 GW of new solar by 2050 to achieve its Balanced Net Zero Pathway.
That equates to 3GW every year – the equivalent of building annually sixty 49MW solar farms (the minimum economically viable size for most solar developers in the current subsidy-free environment). And it comes at the lowest levelised cost of any new generation technology, at £40 per MWh, meaning that solar power could generate 10 to 15% of the UK’s total power requirement at a continuing low cost.
The UK currently has an installed capacity of 13GW of large-scale solar, which has taken almost ten years to achieve. Clearly, we will need a step change to achieve the government’s targets and decarbonise the energy sector.
Smarter solutions
The White Paper also acknowledges the critical role battery storage and other technological infrastructure innovations will have on delivering our future energy system:
“Increasingly, flexibility will come from new, cleaner sources, such as energy storage in batteries, increased interconnected capacity from neighbouring electricity markets, or from consumers using smart technologies to reduce how much energy they use or shift when they use the energy to different times in the day. New forms of flexibility could lower future costs for consumers, by minimising expensive network reinforcement or reducing the need for additional generation, especially peaking capacity which needs to be deployed quickly to meet spikes in demand.”
It is a bold and ambitious energy strategy. We look forward to working with our wind and solar clients and those finding new, exciting and fair ways of financing our future energy infrastructure, to help make it happen.
