UK - Cameron’s green economy plan ‘recognises need for energy revolution’

BWEA, the UK’s leading renewable energy association, welcomed proposals announced today by David Cameron for a low carbon economy as a serious contribution to the debate on Britain’s future strategic energy policy.

BWEA Chairman Adam Bruce said “These proposals recognise that a massive expansion of wind, wave and tidal power is vital to decarbonising the UK economy.

Bruce added “The Conservative plans recognise that moving to a green economy will create jobs, secure our energy supplies and tackle climate change. Britain needs a green energy revolution that delivers security of supply and better management of demand. Today’s announcement is a positive step towards what will be a transformational event in UK energy policy.”

Wind, wave and tidal energy will play a vital role in decarbonising the economy. To reach the 2020 target of generating 15% of all the UK’s energy from renewables, between 35 to 40% of our electricity will have to come from renewables, which in turn means having 33 to 35GW of installed wind capacity.

To go further and fully decarbonise the economy will require even greater amounts of renewable production – including harnessing Britain’s huge wave and tidal power resource, as well as radical reform of our grid infrastructure.

BWEA welcomes the Conservative proposals – especially the calls for:

- A ‘smart grid’ with ‘smart meter’ technology for households & businesses.

- Support for a vast expansion of offshore wind with new incentives to build the necessary sub-sea grid network.

- Fast track planning for a number of offshore parks for wave and tidal energy.

The BWEA looks forward to working with the Conservative party over the coming months to flesh out some of their proposals, as well as working through some areas not covered in the Report, particularly the current and future contribution of onshore wind generation.

There is currently 7GW of onshore schemes in the planning system in the UK, much of these with Conservative councils, which if approved could save nearly 8 million tonnes of CO2 a year.

We will not achieve our existing ambitious targets for 2020, or these new aspirations for 2050 without every available source of renewable energy supply.