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Decentralised energy production to be encouraged |
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27 Jul 2010, 6:43 PM
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Without stronger Government action and a greater focus on community-scale generation, the UK risks missing its EU commitment to produce 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020, a new report from Friends of the Earth warned today. Major policy changes such as better incentives are needed to plug the UK into green power recommends the report, commissioned by environmental campaigning charity and led by sustainable energy expert Dr. Jim Watson.
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The announcement co-incides with Chris Huhne making a Commons speech on carbon targets, renewable energy and wind power policy.
The report stresses the crucial role local authorities have to play in generating community-scale energy through schemes like hydro plants and wind turbines. While the UK is making progress on large-scale energy generation such as offshore wind, and small-scale generation such as domestic solar panels, a much greater focus is needed on community-scale schemes to hit the renewables target, say the authors.
Friends of the Earth's senior climate campaigner Tony Bosworth said: "The Government must show leadership by making vital policy changes to make sure we hit our EU target and produce more renewable power. Local authorities are key to effectively tackling climate change - and they are best placed to deliver community-scale green electricity schemes that will help us meet renewable energy targets, as well as create jobs and slash fuel bills for people living in the area.
"We need a nationwide system of local carbon budgets, setting a fair cap on CO₂ emissions in each council area, to help every council play its part in tackling climate change by leading ambitious carbon-cutting strategies such as generating green energy, insulating homes and improving public transport."
The report also advocates better financial incentives to attract essential investment for developing renewable energy.
It says shortcomings of the current system - the Renewables Obligation (RO) - have slowed progress so far, and recommends replacing the RO with a feed-in tariff (FIT) that delivers a more certain return.
On a related front, Housing minister Grant Shapps has announced that the government will set up a community energy fund which will be used to pay for district heating and renewable energy schemes. Developers would pay into the fund as a way of meeting their carbon reduction obligations rather than having to pay for expensive onsite renewable or directly fund offsite energy schemes.
Under the definition of zero carbon developers are allowed to offset 30% of a new development’s carbon emissions offsite, the so called “allowable solutions”. The move is the first step towards setting up a mechanism to deliver the developer funded contributions.
The mainstream construction industry is still waiting for the government to clarify how they will meet the offsite element of the definition of zero carbon.
Shapps said the fund would be managed by local authorities. He also said the government wanted to avoid a “top down prescriptive approach” as it would give developers and councils much more “flexibility” on how they would meet zero carbon standards.
The minimum fabric energy standards set out last year by the Zero Carbon Hub has also been ratified. The suggested percentage improvement over current standards are equivalent to about CSH level 3 to 4.
Shapps also said the government were 'commited' to a realistic benchmark for carbon emissions in Building Regulations although this had to take into account the costs involved in meeting this. The Zero Carbon Hub will research the appropriate level for this benchmark, and will recieve £600,000 in government funding for its work this year.
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