The UK Government is currently consulting on whether support for renewable energy projects should continue beyond 2020. It asks whether subsidy regulations for renewable energy should be changed to allow the Government to support projects due to start between 2020 and 2026. Although the UK Government has recently cut support for onshore wind and solar, it has indicated it will provide further support for offshore wind and potentially other ‘less established’ technologies.
RSPB has said it welcomes the proposal to formally extend the Government’s powers to fund renewable energy into the 2020s, highlighting the need to boost investor confidence in the UK as a good place to do business for renewable energy. Although the nature charity strongly resists renewable energy proposals where they are expected to have unacceptable wildlife impacts, it supports large-scale expansion of carefully-planned renewable energy across the UK, and does not object to over 90 percent of sites.
In its recent report, ‘The RSPB’s 2050 Energy Vision’, a mapping analysis showed how the UK can deliver its climate targets using ambitious levels of renewable energy, without major risks to sensitive species and habitats. It concluded that renewable energy should be prioritised in the UK’s energy strategy, with continued growth of onshore wind, solar and offshore renewables in addition to reducing energy demand.
The report also highlighted major opportunities to develop renewable energy in deeper waters around the UK, using innovative technologies like floating turbines to harness strong winds further offshore. This could enable substantial growth in areas where development is likely to have lower risks for marine wildlife, in particular due to lower densities of protected seabirds, which have presented major challenges for some offshore wind projects. The RSPB has called on the UK Government to invest in understanding the impacts of floating wind technology and overcoming any barriers to sustainable deployment, with a view to encouraging commercial-scale sites by the mid-2020s.
This opportunity has been highlighted in a number of other studies, including by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), which found that encouraging floating wind is a “key strategic issue for the UK”.
“The RSPB is clear that continued Government support for carefully-planned renewable energy into the 2020s is critical to the UK’s long-term energy strategy” said RSPB Senior Policy Officer, Melanie Coath. “There is also an exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of innovative technologies like floating wind turbines, if we seize the opportunity now, and make sure we invest in understanding the impacts of those technologies so they can be rolled out in harmony with nature.”
Image: Creative Commons/Flickr - Paul
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