Implication of the UK Meeting its 2020 Renewable Energy Target

In January 2008, the European Union published its Climate and Energy package setting out proposals to achieve reductions in EU greenhouse gas emissions of 20% by 2020. As part of this package, the UK has target to deliver 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020, a commitment that requires a ten-fold increase in renewable energy consumption from current levels.

The UK government's Renewable Energy Strategy consultation, published in June 2008, presents an illustrative scenario where renewable generation accounts for 32% of total electricity generation by 2020 - more than double the projected share under current policies.

The study, commissioned by WWF-UK and Greenpeace UK, presents high-level scenarios to investigate what implication such changes in renewable penetration will have on the need for new conventional generation capacity. In Particular, since the UK's main renewable generation resource is wind, it considers the impact of a growing reliance on an intermittent resource on the overall required installed capacity to maintain a sufficiently robust electricity supply.

To read and download the full report click here