Lower carbon energy in the UK: The legislation
Monday 16 June 2008
The transformation of the energy market in the UK is being driven by changing legislation - internationally and at home - to promote renewable energy as an answer to energy security and environmental concerns.
Under EU law, Britain has a national target to source 15% of its energy from renewables by 2020. This is equivalent to a seven-fold increase in UK renewable energy consumption from 2008 levels: the most challenging of any EU Member State.
The Renewable Energy Strategy, published in July (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story), outlined how Britain aims to achieve this target. The Strategy included new incentives systems of Feed-in Tariffs and the Renewable Heat Incentive, due for implementation in 2010 and
2011 respectively and revisions to the Renewables Obligation.
Grid connections and planning were also addressed in the strategy and taken further in the six National Policy Statements - on renewable energy, fossil fuels, oil and gas supply and storage, electricity networks, power lines and accompanied by an over-arching energy statement - released in November.
These are set to form the basis on which planning decisions are made by the new Infrastructure Planning Commission, which from March 2010 will aim to speed up the process for large scale onshore and offshore projects.
Within both Europe and the UK, the authorities are also paving the way for technologies outside the renewables field to help reduce the energy sector's carbon footprint - including more nuclear power and the use of carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) to "clean up" the use of fossil fuels.
Internationally, the much-hyped Copenhagen summit ended without a significant agreement in sight, although further talks in Germany and Mexico may yet produce a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Our legislation section provides some details of the significant new legislation driving the current transformation of the energy sector - with information on:
- European Union legislation
- UK legislation
- Electricity legislation
- Transport fuels legislation
- Heating and cooling legislation
- Emissions legislation
