Renewable Energy Sources and Future Prospects

This assignment provides an overview of renewable energy sources in the UK, highlighting the potential for wind, wave, tidal, solar, and geothermal power. It discusses the implications of renewable energy on the grid system and explores emerging technologies that can reduce net emissions from fossil fuel usage.

Energy Resources in the UK: A Critical Assessment and Analysis
1. Introduction:
At home and abroad, the UK Administration is trying to adapt to climate change and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions through investment in low carbon energy sources, improvements in
fuel standards in cars, and increase, where possible, energy efficiency. In 2012, the United
Kingdom nations are equipped with a wide variety of renewables. However, the UK leads the
world in the offshore wind industry with more than 700 turbines already installed. With the
largest tasks in Europe already under production in Scotland and Wales, the UK is accelerating
the use of onshore wind. UK set the first legally binding climate change target in the world in
2008. The objective was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the United Kingdom by at
least 80% by 2050. In order to meet the target, the UK Government has established national
policies and strategies. The actions included:
• Carbon budgets are permitted for the UK to emit greenhouse gas over a specified period
of time.
• Use of greenhouse gas emission statistics and additional evidence, examination and
exploration to notify energy and climate policy.
• The EU Emissions Trading Scheme has achieved over 50% of the United Kingdom's
CO2 reduction target by 2020
• Use a set of carbon values to ensure that the climate change impacts of the projects and
policy assessments are considered.
• The 2050 Calculator will allow policymakers and the general public to explore various
options to reach the 2050 reduction targets.
The context of this debate is the dual commitment of the United Kingdom to lessen greenhouse
gas releases and rise the share of renewable energy generated by wind and solar power. The
Climate Change Act commits the UK, in comparison with the 1990 levels, to cut its annual
greenhouse gases by at minimum 80% by 2050. With the government's initial four carbon
budgets, adopted by Legislature, emissions are to be decreased by 34% by 2020 and 50% by
2025. At the same time, the EU Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) calls on UK to
obtain, by 2020, at least 15% of their gross final energy consumption4. The UK must shift its
energy supply to a significantly less carbon intensive source, in order to attain these goals and
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move near a low-carbon economy. This ambition is based on renewable energy, for instance
onshore wind. There are however several forms of low-carbon energy and the right combination
of renewable sources and other low-carbon technologies is not trivial to determine.
2. Aims and objectives:
This report purposes to provide an overview of and availability in the UK of different renewable
and non-renewable energy supplies. A virtual exploration of the benefits and drawbacks of a
number of renewable and non-renewable energy resources in the UK is also included.
Consequently, the Climate Change Act (2008) of 80% of the CO2 decline by 2050 will be
associated with critical evaluation research.
3. Literature Review:
In 1997, a requirement for countries to reduce carbon emissions between 2008-2012 was laid
down under the Kyoto Protocol. In 2002, it was the responsibility of several countries to make
this internationally binding agreement the International Summit for Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg. In 2009, Copenhagen retained Kyoto's momentum to reduce further emissions of
carbon. The UK and EU countries had chosen to go beyond the Kyoto targets in particular and
by 2010 the United Kingdom Government proposed 20% CO2 reductions. Sadly, this was not
achieved until 2010. On the other hand, by the middle of the century, the Royal Environment
Pollution Commission (2000) specified that 60% reduction was necessary. Indeed in the energy
white paper in 2003 and 2007, it was adopted as the formal UK target.
The United Kingdom Government finally set an 80% CO2 reduction target of the Climate
Change Act (2008) by 2050. There are a number of long-term CO2 reduction instruments and
strategies. The UK government accelerates the renewable and low-carbon planning decisions,
such as offshore wind energy, mare energy, nuclear, etc. Climate Change Policy Actions (CPC),
the Renewable Energy Obligation (REO) and the Emission Trading Scheme (CETS) were
developed by UK government (ETS). CCL is in fact valid for all non-domestic power use but by
means of Climate Change Agreements major energy users can release up to 80% of the levy.
4. Analysis:
An overview and accessibility of various renewable and non-renewable energy resources in the
UK
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4.1 Renewable Energy:
In 2011, 77.1% of renewable energies used in the UK are generated by hydroelectric and wind.
However, the shares of large sized hydro (4.9%) in primary input were around threefold for the
wind (with 15.4% of shares). "Of the 8.7 million tons of primary oil used in energy renewables,
electricity was generated at 6.3 million tonnes, heat was generated at 1.2 million tonnes, and road
transport was transported at 1.1 million tonnes.' The different sources of renewable energy are:
4.1.1 Hydroelectric power:
The energy derived from flowing water is hydroelectric power. It can happen from rivers or
manmade systems, where the water flows through a tunnel and from a barrier from a high-level
basin. Turbines inside the water flow remove their cinematical energy and transform it into
powered energy. This causes turbines, which pumps the mechanical energy into electrical
energy, to rotate at high speed. Britain is currently in hydro-electric power generating (2011)
around 1.5% of its electricity. The output of hydroelectric power is defined by 3 main categories:
• Larger capacity: more than 5 megawatts of hydro-electricity (MW).
• Small capacity: less than 5 megawatts of hydropower plant.
• Capacity of the Micro-Plant: less than 50 kilowatts of hydroplant production.
At the end of 2011, the total installed hydro-electric capacity in Great Britain was around 1676
megawatts, representing around 1.9% of Great Britain's current total generating capacity as well
as 14% of GEP capacity.
4.1.2 Tidal Wave:
The electricity produced by movement of the wave and of the tidal stream energy is electricity.
Tidal energy is also predictable and consistent with current energy streams. Tidal Wave energy
sources are expected to develop in UK. "The United Kingdom has an estimated 50% of
European tidal power sources and the 2004 research estimated the technical resource of the
United Kingdom to be around 16 terawatts per hour per year (TWh/year) (4% of the total
supply)." Wave and tidal streams have the potential to meet up to 20 per cent of Britain's current
demand for electricity, representing an installed capacity of 30 to 50 gigawatts. The production
capability could be between 200 and 300 MW by 2020, and up to 27 GWs at the top of the range
by 2050. By 2050 the production capacity could be deployed.
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4.1.3 Wind Power:
The kinetic wind energy is turned into useful mechanical power through wind power
technologies. The dynamic energy of the air flow delivers the driving force for the wind turbine
edges that power the initiator in the wind turbine via a driven shaft. Wind power is now one of
the most advanced and economical technologies in the area of renewable electricity. Britain has
Europe's largest potential wind power resource. With over 700 turbines already installed, the
United Kingdom leads the world in overseas winds. With the major projects already operating in
Europe, it accelerates deployment of overseas winds in Scotland and Wales.
Figure 1 : UK has the largest energy potential in wind power.
In early 2013, wind turbine capacity in the UK was set up at 8445 Megawatts (MW) with 362
wind ranches operating and 4158 wind turbines in the UK. The UK is the eighth largest wind
power producer in the world. By 2020, the government's transfer plan published in 2011 will
make a total of at least 13GW of onshore wind and 18GW of offshore wind operational. As a
source of grid energy, wind farms would be on a par with nuclear and only CCGT plants, given a
steady decline in coal and some nuclear power stations.
4.1.4 Biomass and Bio-fuel:
Biomass is the plant material used for electricity generation and heat energy generation. Biomass
is normally a living material that can be used for fuel or a recently dead plant material. In order
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to achieve the UK's target for 15 percent renewables by 2020, biomass will make a significant
contribution.
4.1.5 Geothermal:
A well established and relatively mature form of commercial renewable energy generation is
geothermal. However, a high load factor, mean that during a year each MW of capacity
generates significantly more power than a MW of wind or solar power, constitutes one important
feature of its production. Under the Earth's surface geothermal energy is stored as the heat. In
2011, in Iceland (90 MW) and Costa Rica (42 MW), only two main projects were completed and
Mexico decommissioned an old plant (78 MW). The United States is now just over 3.1 GW, the
Philippines (2.0 GW), Indonesia (12.2 GW) and Mexico, with a total capacity of about 28.3%.
(0.9 GW).
4.2 Non-Renewable Energy:
In the last 200 years, our energy has increased steadily from non-renewable sources like oil and
coal. Nuclear power plant in Great Britain is the main non-renewable resource. However, gas
and petroleum consumption primarily produces carbon dioxide and water, thus releasing its
energy.
4.2.1 Fossil Fuels:
Fossil fuels consist of compounds consisting of carbon and hydrogen chemical elements. During
the Carboniferous Period, the remains of animals and plants formed fossil fuels millions of years
ago. In the United Kingdom current situation:
• Fossil fuels generate 74 percent of the UK's electricity.
• The majority (13%) of the world's oil is from Saudi Arabia.
• Russia is the world's leading natural gas producer, extracting nearly 22% of the total
production annually.
• Great Britain is 5th in terms of production of coal, with 3.2%.
• China has taken the lead in mining 38% of world coal.
4.2.2 Nuclear Power:
The government commits to delivering a low carbon and affordable energy mix of renewable
energy, new nuclear1, and clean natural gas and coal that will generate low-carbon electricity
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reliably and reduce British reliance on imports of fossil fuel." Two of the main government's
energy policy objectives are to ensure energy security and to decarbonize the UK economy by 80
per cent, as required by the Climate Change Act by 2050 compared with 1990 greenhouse gas
emissions (2008).
4.3 Renewable Energy and Non-Renewable Comparative Analysis:
There are also advantages and disadvantages to all renewable and non-renewable energy
resources. Actually, hydropower has an enormous power capacity and a low cost to run, thus
reducing wind power and making it very expensive to operate. In comparison, UK has a
conventional power generation capacity of approximately 65,000 MW. Less than one third of the
electricity in the UK now comes from coal-fired power stations, over one-third from combined
cycle gas turbines fired by natural gas. The nuclear element supplies approximately 25% of UK
electricity, although this will gradually decrease as old plants reach the end of operation. Now
that the bulk of the nuclear industry is privatized, no new nuclear energy plants in the UK are
likely to be ordered.
In terms of performance and reliability it appears likely that renewable energy technology will
continue to develop and become cheaper. In the space of ten or so, for example, wind turbines
cost electricity has decreased by about 70% and similar reductions have taken place for
photovoltaic solar cells. However, some technical constraints obviously exist. Naturally, some
renewables are intermittent, for example the wind and waves, and naturally the sun! However,
intermittence was suggested to not be a major operational issue if power from these devices is
fed into the domestic electricity grid system. As long as the total contribution of the different
intermittent renewable energy sources does not exceed about 30%-40% of the total electricity on
the grid, the grid can actually 'even' change locally to make it more or less constant that the total
net power of the grid remains at a cost-efficient storage level. Increasing concerns about the
environmental impacts of conventional energy technologies such as global warmed-up from the
release of greenhouse gasses, such as CO2 produced when fossil fuels have been burned, could
also be used to stimulate the deployment of energy sources for rereasers. It is important to trade
between local and global impacts.
5. Conclusions:
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Renewable sources of energy are known as renewable sources of energy, since they are
constantly regenerated, they will never be exhausted. Britain's position is good: it has one of the
biggest wind, wave and tidal energy resources in the world. UK is rich in renewables, such as
wind, waves, hydropower, solar, geothermal energy, biomass and so on. The future of
renewables will obviously depend, nationally and internationally, on a broad range of technical,
environmental, political and other policy concerns. The UK is fortunate to be relatively reserved
for oil, gas and coal, and it has probably led to some indulgence, not least in energy
conservation, due to its relative cheapness. However, apart from the fact that these reserves of
fossil fuels are limited, the question remains whether they can all be utilized without causing
unacceptable environmental problems, particularly with regard to global warming. New
technologies are emerging that more efficiently use fossil fuels to reduce net emissions.
6. References:
1. Department of Energy and Climate Change (2013) UK renewable energy
roadmap[Online] Available from:
(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukrenewable-energy-roadmap-update)
[Accessed on 5th March, 2013]
2. Department of Energy and Climate Change (2013) UK greenhouse gas emission [Online]
Available from: (https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reducing-the-uks-greenhouse-
gas-emissions-by-80-by-2050) [Accessed on 1th March, 2013]
3. Anderson, P.D., 1998. Review of Historical and Modern Utilization of Wind Power.
[online] Technical University of Denmark. Available at:
(http://www.risoe.dtu.dk/rispubl/VEA/Review_Historical_Modern_Utilization_Wind_Po
wer.pd) [Accessed on 25th February, 2013]
4. Department of Energy and Climate Change (2013) UK renewable energy 2011 [Online]
Available from: (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewableenergy-in-2011)
[Accessed on 1th March, 2013] Energy Resource and Use Analysis Final Report 2012-
2013
5. Department of Energy and Climate Change (2013) UK energy in brief 2012[Online]
Available from: (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/UK_energy in brief 2012)
[Accessed on 7th March, 2013]
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6. Department of Energy and Climate Change (2013) Harnessing hydroelectric
power[Online] Available from: (https://www.gov.uk/harnessing-hydroelectric-power)
[Accessed on 4th March, 2013] .
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