Last week the coalition proposed reforms aimed at moving the UK to the front of the global race for electricity investment, driving growth of clean energy industries in the UK and ensuring the best possible deal for consumers.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change and HM Treasury have together launched consultations on fundamental reforms to the electricity market to ensure the UK can meet its climate goals and have a secure, affordable supply of electricity in the long term.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said:
“These reforms lay the foundations for a sustainable economy, bringing billions in investment in the UK through greater certainty, safeguarding jobs up and down the supply chain, and giving the UK real competitive advantage in advanced energy technologies.
More than £110 billion of investment is needed in new power stations and grid upgrades over the next decade, that’s double the rate of the last ten years. Put simply, the current market is not fit to deliver this.
The UK was first to put binding carbon reduction targets into law. Now the coalition is taking the historic step of introducing, permanently, a level playing field for low carbon technologies in the UK’s electricity market.
Without investment in renewables, new nuclear and carbon capture and storage, emissions will remain too high, we will become dependent on energy imports, and increasingly vulnerable to fossil fuel price volatility.
Low carbon technologies must be given the chance to become the dominant component in our electricity mix.
In the new, reformed UK electricity market, the economics of low carbon will stack up like nowhere else in the world. By 2030, three quarters of our electricity could be low carbon.
Crucially, our reforms will also make sure there is enough spare supply to keep the lights on reliably. They will protect the rules for existing investments. And, over the long term, they will achieve more, while resulting in bills lower than they would otherwise be.”
Ref: To read the full report please visit the DECC