UK goes renewable – A tenfold increase in 12 years.

The UK got one of the tougher tasks when Europe distributed the shares for renewables within the 20% target for 2020. They were tasked to reach 15%, coming from 1.5 %, in only a few years. Considering that many other countries with better deals and coming from better starting points screamed to high heaven over their misfortune, it was anticipated that the British would just say no, it can’t be done. So much greater is the surprise when their recently launched consultation shows the possibilities based on work from their Renewables Advisory Board (RAB).

And the winner is – Offshore wind.

The Norwegians have discovered that the North Sea holds an incredible asset in windpower. Quite naturally, the British have done so, too, since part of the North Sea is on their side. The vision says that the UK will exploit 18,000 MW offshore wind by 2020 coming from a meagre 400 MW today. Also, onshore wind will take a jump from some 2,000 MW to 13,000 MW. The vision has also added a safety margin of some GW to “accommodate failures and slippage” as they say.

In all, almost half of the target will be supplied as electricity. The share will be some 7%, which in turn means that 40% of British electricity will come from renewables.

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