Tag Archives: climate-change
UK ‘Off Track’ For 2020 Renewables Target
31 July 2013 Official energy statistics published today by the UK government report that the UK has missed its indicative renewable energy target for 2011-12. As a result the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will have to submit an amended national renewable energy action plan to the European Commission by 30th June 2014, setting out measures to get the country back ‘on track’. The means that the UK is the only Member State which has failed to meet both 2011 and 2013 indicative targets and which is expected not to reach its 2020 target. “This is a near miss. Had government interfered less with its existing policies for biomass power, stuck to its timetable on the Renewable Heat Incentive, or laid out a clear framework for biofuels, then it would almost certainly have met its indicative target,” commented Renewable Energy Association (REA) chief executive Gaynor Hartnell. The 2011-12 UK figure shows that 3.94% of energy comes from renewables, 0.1% short of the indicative target of 4.04%. Meanwhile, the majority of the EU-27 had already met their 2011-12 indicative targets by the end of 2011. According to the latest EUROSTAT data, the UK remains 25th out of the 27 EU Member States on the share of renewables in its heating system, power supply and transport fuels. The UK’s 2020 target is one of the lowest across the EU-27 (15%), and requires one of the highest annual growth rates (16.5% year-on-year to 2020). The REA is the UK partner for the EU-wide ‘ Keep on Track! ’ project, which assesses Member States’ progress towards their 2020 targets. The first ‘Keep on Track’ Tracking Roadmap report was published last month and revealed that the UK had missed its indicative 2011 NREAP target. The REA estimates that if the renewables industry expands sufficiently to meet the UK’s 2020 target, it will sustain 400,000 jobs across the supply chain. Continue reading
Shifting Global Investments To Clean Energy
By James A. Harmon July 29, 2013 Cattle graze near wind turbines in Paracuru, Brazil, April 24, 2009. REUTERS/Stuart Grudgings When President Barack Obama announced the country’s first national climate strategy, many people wondered what it would mean across the nation. Yet, the strategy may carry even more significant implications overseas. The plan restricts U.S. government funding for most international coal projects. This policy could significantly affect energy producers and public and private investors around the globe. Why is this important? Global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, a major driver of climate change, hit a record high in 2012. Meanwhile, there are more than 1.2 billion people worldwide still without access to electricity. The global middle class is booming — especially in the developing world — and with it, energy demand is surging. In fact, global energy demand is expected to grow by one-third by 2035. This surge in demand, however, does not need to lead to a surge in carbon pollution. It is well past time for the world to embrace the shift to renewable energy — a shift that would bring economic opportunities while leaving a better planet for future generations. In fact, this transition is already underway. Renewable energy (including hydro) is the fastest-growing power generation sector in the world, according to a recent International Energy Agency report. Renewable energy is on pace to comprise one-quarter of the electricity mix by 2018. It is also increasingly cost-competitive with fossil fuels. Many developing nations, like South Africa, China and Brazil, are setting the pace. Renewable energy investments in developing countries hit $112 billion in 2012, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, close to the $132 billion from developed countries. Obama’s announcement should have a significant ripple effect, especially on major U.S. lending institutions. The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which works with the private sector to invest abroad in support of development activities, committed around $1 billion to renewable energy projects in each of the past two years, with its annual commitments increasing nearly 10-fold since 2009. Its recent renewable energy investments are focused on Peru, South Africa and Pakistan, among others. The U.S. Export-Import Bank, where I was chairman from 1997 to 2001, has similarly increased its share of renewable energy financing. The Export-Import Bank provided $355 million for renewable energy investments in 2012 — more than triple the amount in 2009. Exports to wind farms in Honduras are now powering job growth in states like Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. Obama’s announcement will help the bank balance its portfolio away from fossil fuel projects and toward the renewable energy projects that will help create U.S. jobs by selling clean energy technologies abroad. Momentum is clearly growing as the World Bank just announced that it will restrict funding of new coal-fired power plants to rare circumstances and support universal access to reliable modern energy. Even before its decision, the bank was taking steps in this direction — $3.6 billion of its $8.2 billion in energy investments between June 2011 and June 2012 went to renewable energy projects. The bank has some important test cases, including in Kosovo, in the near future. Also last week, the European Investment Bank said it would stop financing most coal-fired power plants to reduce pollution and meet climate targets. Clearly, renewable energy can be profitable for business. Many companies, like Wal-Mart, Google and General Electric, have made major bets on renewables. Notably Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway firm has been increasing its clean energy investments, with a recent purchase of $5.6 billion for a renewable energy company in Nevada and a $2.4 billion investment in a wind farm in California. As clean energy markets expand, these American companies and investors will be well-positioned to lead. The reality is that emerging economies do not need to go down a path of relying on fossil fuels. Just as many developing countries skipped land lines and went straight to cellular telephones, these countries can leapfrog right to affordable clean energy. Investing in clean energy is not only good for the economic growth, it is good for people. The unfortunate reality is that those in the poorest countries are often the most vulnerable to climate change — whether from rising seas that threaten homes and water supplies or droughts that drive up food prices. This is the human cost of fossil fuels that often goes unmentioned in balance sheets and gross domestic product statistics. Considering the risks of climate change and benefits of clean energy, the president’s climate plan clearly deserves our support. Now, it is our collective responsibility to turn this plan into a reality. Continue reading
UK Misses 2011/12 Renewable Energy Target
26 July 2013 by Annie Reece The UK has missed its 2011/12 target of producing four per cent of energy from renewable sources, and has seen a sharp rise in the use of coal for energy, statistics released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have shown. The ‘ Digest of United Kingdom energy statistics ’ (DUKES), released yesterday (25 July) show that provisional calculations put the UK’s renewable energy consumption at 4.1 per cent, up from the 2011 rate of 3.8 per cent. According to the report, this was due to ‘significant growth in the contribution of renewable electricity, [whilst] the renewable heating contribution remained constant, but the renewable transport contribution fell’. Despite the rise in renewable energy consumption, across 2011 and 2012, the UK achieved an estimated average of 3.94 per cent, less than the 4.04 per cent target set out in the 2009 EU Renewable Directive . However, the DUKES report explains that the figure is within the ‘margin of error’: ‘Calculating the average contribution across these two years [2011/12] shows that provisionally the UK achieved 3.94 per cent, thus falling short by 275 ktoe (thousand tonnes of oil equivalent, or 3,200 gigawatt hours) of directive compliant renewable energy.’ It continues: ‘DECC’s normal practise in reporting deployment of renewables is to calculate rates to one decimal place, which recognises the uncertainty in estimates of both renewables and final energy consumption… As such whilst the estimate of 3.94 per cent is our best estimate, users should be aware that the uncertainty attached to this estimate would cover the 275 ktoe shortfall.’ Missed target comes as ‘little surprise’ Chief Executive of the Renewables Energy Association (REA), Gaynor Hartnell, cited government’s recent distancing from biomass as a contributing factor to the missed target: “This is a near miss”, she said. “Had Government interfered less with its existing policies for biomass power, stuck to its timetable on the Renewable Heat Incentive, or laid out a clear framework for biofuels, then it would almost certainly have met its indicative target.” Peter Rolton, former advisor on government’s Renewables Advisory Board and current Chairman of engineering company the Rolton Group added: “Whilst it’s obviously disappointing that the UK has missed its interim renewables target, it can come as little surprise. Substantial overestimations of the potential for marine technology have been compounded by investor uncertainty throughout the sector and the significant underinvestment in bioenergy, as Gaynor Hartnell has rightly pointed out. This is in addition to the poor publicity of supposedly flagship schemes such as the Green Deal, which in itself provides a continuing demonstration of governmental mismanagement . “The powers that be have focused solely on the low-hanging fruit of solar and off-shore wind and have run a mile from the more challenging technologies: the existing built environment, district heating, biomass power generation and biofuels. These big-hitters are vital if we are to meet the legally binding 2020 target, and it is definitely time for foot-to-the-floor strategy if the UK is to succeed.” Looking at electricity generated from renewables, the figures were more promising, with DUKES citing that electricity generated from renewable sources in the UK in 2012 increased by 19 per cent on a year earlier, and accounted for 11.3 per cent of total UK electricity generation (up from 9.4 per cent in 2011). Further, the installed electrical generating capacity of renewable sources rose by 27 per cent in 2012 (from 2011 levels), ‘mainly as a result of a 27 per cent increase in onshore wind capacity, 63 per cent increase in offshore wind capacity, and solar photovoltaic capacity increasing by 71 per cent (due to high uptake of Feed in Tariffs)’. Under the EU directive, the UK is required to produce 15 per cent of all energy from renewable sources by 2020. Key points The DUKES report was released amongst three other energy related publications: ‘ UK Energy in Brief ’, ‘ Energy Flow Chart ’, and ‘ Energy Consumption in the United Kingdom ’ (web only) providing ‘detailed analysis of production, transformation and consumption of energy in 2012’. Key points from these reports include: primary energy production fell by 10.7 per cent from the year before, due to ‘long-term decline and maintenance activity on the UK Continental Shelf’; final energy consumption rose by 1.7 per cent, reflecting ‘the colder weather in 2012’. However, the DECC states that ‘on a temperature adjusted basis’, energy consumption was down 0.7 per cent, ‘continuing the downward trend of the last eight years’; consumption of diesel road fuel exceeded the consumption of motor spirit in 2012 by over 8 million tonnes due ‘in part to increased substitution of diesel for motor spirit use in the UK’s car fleet’; energy imports (mainly from Norway) were at record levels in 2012, up 6.9 per cent on 2011 levels; the domestic sector was the largest electricity consumer in 2012 (114.7 terawatt hours (TWh)), while the industrial sector consumed 97.8 TWh, and the service sector consumed 101.0 TWh. Industrial consumption decreased by 4.4 per cent, while domestic consumption rose by 2.8 per cent; energy consumption in the transport sector fell by one per cent between 2011 and 2012; the increase in residential gas use, due to the cooler weather in 2012, ‘combined with fuel switching away from gas to coal for electricity generation’, provisionally increased emissions of carbon dioxide by four per cent in 2012; the energy industries’ accounted for 3.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product. Coal forms more than a third of UK energy mix Despite the fact that a fifth of the UK’s power plants (including coal and gas) are expected to come offline by 2020, the UK saw a higher share of electricity produced from coal due to ‘increasing gas prices’. More than a third (39 per cent) of electricity came from the carbon-heavy source in 2012 (however, the domestic sector accounted for only 1.1 per cent of total coal consumption). This rise in coal reliance marks a 10 per cent increase on coal use from 2011. The sharp increase in coal use marks another blow to the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), which was set up to deter businesses from using heavy-emission fuels by requiring them to buy permits for every tonne of carbon dioxide they emit. However, the system has proven ‘too weak’ to work effectively, with the price of the permits dropping to under €5 a piece earlier this year as member states and companies flooded the market with extra permits. The EU is now of the mind to withhold (or ‘backload’) ETS permits until 2018-20 to ‘rebalance supply and demand and to reduce price volatility without any significant impacts on competitiveness’ until it decides on ‘more structural measures’. Speaking of the UK’s reliance on coal, Dr Doug Parr, Greenpeace’s Chief Scientific Advisor said that the government now needed to do more to reduce dependence on the ‘dirty fuel’. He said: “Old coal power plants are dominating the energy mix and far from helping us get off the coal hook, the government’s energy bill could entrench the situation.” Indeed, government has been criticised by businesses and environmental groups alike for failing to bring forward a target to decarbonise the electricity sector by 2020. Parr continued: “Not only are old coal plants exempt from carbon pollution limits, but the government also proposes to use money from consumer bills to pay coal plants to stay open well into the next decade. “The government needs to make good on its promises and reduce our reliance on this dirty fuel.” Read the ‘ Digest of United Kingdom energy statistics ’. Continue reading
