UK consumers could spend £2.6bn more for energy every year by 2025 without faster deployment of renewables, according to a new report by the Green Alliance.
It argues that government policy has hindered progress made in regards to green energy since 2015, and that further investment in renewables could result in consumer savings of more than £5bn by 2030.
This comes after the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy revealed subsidies for new offshore wind projects halved since 2015 as a result of its latest competitive auction for renewable technology contracts.
However, the Green Alliance says the auction procured 2GW less in offshore wind than it could have, while also criticising a lack of solar auctions since 2015, and a ban on onshore wind projects.
“Since 2015, the UK has been cutting back on renewables just as they’ve become cheap, having previously invested heavily to bring down their costs,” Green Alliance senior policy adviser, Chaitanya Kumar, said.
“A smarter strategy would be to follow through on the earlier investment and buy more of this cheaper, clean energy, which would keep energy bills down and support new jobs in the renewables industry across the country.”
The report highlights how the planned spending for nuclear power by 2030 is more than twice the amount put aside for renewables, despite the latter producing more power for lower prices.
It claims the UK can meet its 2030 carbon targets without further new nuclear power in the 2020s, but only if the government fully commits to renewables and energy efficiency.
In addition, it says that to compete with offshore wind after 2025, the costs of new nuclear plants will have to fall by at least 30% to below £65/MWh.
“The energy sector is undergoing a fundamental shift towards more distributed, low-carbon, flexible generation sources,” the report says. “Cheap renewables will increasingly shape the space for other power sources.
“If the government is to continue to invest in nuclear, it should ensure that future nuclear is cheap and flexible enough to support a high renewables future.”
