UK Confidence in Green Energy boosted by the Updated Renewable Energy Roadmap

After the update of the UK Renewable Energy Roadmap, the solar industry received an important boost, after being called an essential technology in the United Kingdom's fight to solve its environmental problems caused by the low-tech, obsolete mainstream industry and energy production facilities.

 The solar energy works together now as a key technology, along with onshore and offshore wind, tidal energy, heat pump and green transportation technologies, in a project set by the DECC ( Department of Energy and Climate Change) to achieve the legally binding emission targets until 2020.

 The  Department of Energy and Climate Change provided a document with a significant update on the deployment of the renewable energies in the United Kingdom's markets, between July 2011 and July 2012. In this one year period of time, there has been a major increase of 27 percent in the electricity generated via renewable technologies, bringing the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources at more than 10 percent of all electricity production in the United Kingdom.

This was a significant milestone in achieving the 15 percent target of electricity generation from renewable sources until 2015, the UK's solar industry seems to be back on track for now.
 The same period of time from 2011 to 2012 revealed an increase of 40 percent in the United Kingdom's renewable capacity, mostly from the 60 percent increase in offshore wind capacity, to 2.5 GW and the huge increase in solar Photo Voltaic capacity, an impressive 500 percent.

 Let me show you the most important data from the document released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change :

Onshore & offshore wind

• Overall generation and installed capacity both increased by 34%
• Offshore wind increased by 944MW to a total of 2.5GW of installed capacity. Generation hit just over 6TWh for the period July 2011-June 2012.
• Onshore wind increased by 1.1GW to a total of 5.3GW of installed capacity. Generation rose to 11.2TWh for the period July 2011-June 2012 – an increase of 2.3TWh from the previous year.  

Bioenergy

• Bioenergy installations increased by 900MW over the same period, reaching a total installed capacity of 3.4GW. Generation rose to 14.6TWh, an increase of 1.6TWh from the year before.

Hydro

• Hydro-generated energy increased by 30% during the period July 2011-June 2012 thanks to increased rainfall from the previous year.

Solar PV

• Solar installations in the UK saw a 466% increase between June 2011-June 2012 with 1.2GW of capacity installed in the period.

 The same document shows that since April 2011, the amount of investments in renewable energies reached a peak of  £12.7 billion and the industry announced that  22 800 jobs were created, due to the massive investments in the renewable infrastructure.
  The document from DECC also states:


“The renewables sector (covering electricity, heat and transport) currently supports around 110,000 jobs directly and in immediate supply chains, with another 160,000 jobs supported further along the supply chain. By 2020, the sector could support around 400,000 direct and immediate supply chain jobs and many more further along supply chains.”


 Mr. John Hayes, the Minister of State for Energy made the following comment on the updated Renewable Energy Roadmap:

“Energy is crucial to our economic well-being, bringing in major investment and supporting jobs across the country. I firmly believe that a diverse energy mix is the best way to ensure our energy security. It is extremely encouraging that we have made such positive steps on renewable energy as part of that mix.”


 For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime: 

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/