— Prime Minister Gordon Brown will announce plans today to open the electricity grid to small energy suppliers as part of a program to reduce Britain's dependence on fossil fuels.
The Department for Enterprise, Business and Regulatory Reform said it will sweep away regulatory barriers that prevent individuals and small companies from selling electricity to the national network. Brown will discuss the measures in a 9 a.m. speech in London.
“Increasing our renewable energy sources will require national purpose and a shared national endeavor,'' Brown will say, according to excerpts released by his office.
The measures are aimed at meeting the government's commitment to the European Union for the nation to produce 15 percent of its energy from solar and wind power and other renewable sources by 2020, compared with less than 4 percent now.
“If the government actually means it this time, then we could create jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and use less gas, and in the long run our power bills will come down,'' said John Sauven, director of Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group. “It won't happen without action.''
Business Secretary John Hutton, speaking at the same event as Brown, today will formally ask companies and environmental groups for proposals on how to achieve the government's goals. Brown estimates meeting the renewable target will cost the economy 100 billion pounds ($197 billion) over the next 12 years.
Rising Energy Bills
Brown's popularity has fallen to the lowest for any Labour leader since the end of World War II as slower economic growth and higher food and fuel bills eat into the earnings of consumers. Brown this week pressed OPEC oil producers to pump more oil as a way of reducing energy prices.
Unlike coal and natural gas, most renewable energy sources don't produce carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming.
“Meeting a 15 percent energy target for renewables by 2020 will deliver deep cuts in our carbon emissions,'' said Mark Williamson, the director of innovations at the government-funded Carbon Trust, which promotes ways to reduce carbon emissions. “It will also be a giant step forward in enabling technologies, like offshore wind and marine energy, to reach commercial maturity.''
The EU's target will require as much as 35 percent of U.K. electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2020, according to the country's Association of Electricity Producers. Utilities may need to spend 100 billion pounds on energy networks and power plants to achieve this and replace older power plants, according to the industry group.
Target for 2010
Britain won't meet its own 2010 target for 10 percent of electricity to be generated by renewable sources, Richard Slark, a director of Poyry Energy Consulting, said in November. As much as 8 percent may be achievable by the end of the decade, he said.
Today's measures are meant to flesh out Brown's assertion that Britain is working to wean itself off imported oil by encouraging nuclear and especially renewable energy.
Brown has set a goal for companies to build 7,000 wind turbines to provide a third of the nation's electric power by 2020, and allowing those producers to sell excess power to the network used by utilities would encourage small companies to enter the business.
The government also is streamlining its planning laws to make power plants easier to build. British Energy Plc waited six years for the go-ahead to build the Sizewell B nuclear station, which entered service in 1995.
`Hard Decisions'
“A low-carbon society will not emerge from 'business as usual,''' Brown will say in his speech. “It will require real leadership from government — being prepared to make hard decisions on planning or on tax for example.''
Britain must replace a third of its power-generation plants by 2020, because most of its current nuclear stations are nearing the end of their lives. Brown says he favors nuclear power and renewable energy to cut back on the use of fossil fuels.
In 2007, about 37 percent of Britain's electricity came from coal-fired power plants compared with 36 percent from natural gas, 18 percent from nuclear and 4 percent from renewable sources, according to the government's business department.
“It will involve new forms of economic activity and social organization,'' Brown will say. “It will mean new kinds of consumer behavior and lifestyles. And it will demand creativity, innovation and entrepreneurialism throughout our economy and our society.''
