Isra-Mart srl: Offshore wind the big winner in government's renewables roadmap

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The government has set its sights on slashing the costs of offshore wind, aiming to deliver as much as 18GW of energy capacity from wind farms off the UK coast by 2020.

The target forms the centrepiece of a new UK Renewable Energy Roadmap published alongside today's Electricity Market Reforms, which details how the government plans to draw on eight low carbon technologies to help ensure its legally-binding renewables targets are met.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change also announced that an industry-led task force will be asked to identify means of reducing the price of electricity from offshore wind generation from around £150 per MWh currently to £110 per MWh by 2020 - a reduction that the government hopes will allow the industry to far exceed the 13GW capacity target for 2020 outlined in 2009's Renewable Energy Strategy.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne announced the task force will be supported by a £30m fund to promote innovation in component production over the next four years.

The Roadmap outlines the barriers the UK will have to overcome to meet its target of producing 15 per cent of its energy from green sources by the end of the decade.

It also lists eight technologies that it thinks will have the greatest potential for doing so cost-effectively, or are seen as offering promise post-2020.

The designated technologies are offshore wind, onshore wind, marine energy, biomass electricity, biomass heat, ground and air source heat pumps, and greener transport techbologies, such as biofuels and electric vehicles.

The government said that combined these technologies will result in a four-fold increase in renewable energy consumption by 2020.

"Growth on that kind of scale will be challenging, but will be necessary if we are to make the UK more energy secure, help protect consumers from fossil fuel price fluctuations, drive investment in new jobs and businesses, and keep us on track to meet our carbon reduction objectives for the coming decades," Huhne said.

"It will require industry to carry on making the case for renewables and Government and the Devolved Administrations to break through the barriers that are stopping new schemes being built."

Energy minister Charles Hendry told reporters that the government expected the eight technologies to get the country to 90 per cent of the target, with other technologies, including solar, playing a "marginal role".

The roadmap confirms the government's oft-stated intention to decrease planning barriers for green energy projects, increase funding through the proposed Green Investment Bank, and ensure faster connection to the grid for renewables projects.

It also outlines the finaincial support it has offered the chosen eight technologies, such as a £20m pot to fund marine demonstration projects.

However, the £30m innovation fund for offshore wind is a new development, and was welcomed by the industry.

"It's important to reduce costs for the consumer... and also it solidifies the country's position as a technology leader," a spokesman for trade body RenewableUK told BusinessGreen, adding that the industry was more than capable of delivering the new 18GW target.

"If we want wind to work we need a robust target. The required capacity had to be there in order for manufacturers to set up businesses in the UK. Once that happened we can deliver the capacity," he said.

However, the solar industry expressed bewilderment at it being excluded from the list of eight technologies, noting that the roadmap also explicitly states that the sector has good long term prospects in the UK.

"Today's renewables road map makes it clear that the Government expects large-scale solar PV to be cost-competitive with offshore wind and dedicated biomass electricity generation and cheaper than all marine in 2020," said Seb Berry, head of public affairs at developer Solarcentury. "It is surprising therefore that PV is not included in the list of eight core technologies that the Government expects either to deliver the bulk of the 2020 target or that "have great potential" in the "decades" ahead. The eight core technologies should surely have been nine."