Renewable energy in the United Kingdom
From the mid-1990s, renewable energy began to play a part in the UK's electricity generation, building on a small hydroelectric capacity.
In 2022, bioenergy comprised 63% of the renewable energy sources utilized in the UK, with wind accounting for the majority of the remaining share at 26%, while heat pumps and solar each contributed approximately 4.4%.
The earliest reliable reference to a windmill in Europe (assumed to have been of the vertical type) dates from 1185, in the former village of Weedley in Yorkshire, at the southern tip of the Wold overlooking the Humber Estuary.
[12] The first electricity-generating wind turbine was a battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by Scottish academic James Blyth to light his holiday home in Marykirk, Scotland.
[13] In 1878, the world's first hydroelectric power scheme was developed at Cragside in Northumberland, England by William George Armstrong.
The world's third pumped-storage hydroelectric power station, the Cruachan Dam in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, came on line in 1967.
[16] The Central Electricity Generating Board attempted to experiment with wind energy on the Llŷn Peninsula in Wales during the 1950s, but this was shelved after local opposition.
In 1974, the Central Policy Review Staff recommended that 'the first stage of a full technical and economic appraisal of harnessing wave power for electricity generation should be put in hand at once.'
Wave power was seen to be the future of the nation's energy policy, and solar, wind, and tidal schemes were dismissed as 'impractical'.
[19] In 1987 a 3.7 MW demonstration wind turbine on Orkney began supplying electricity to homes, the largest in Britain at the time.
Two years later the UK's first onshore windfarm was opened in Delabole, Cornwall: ten turbines producing enough energy for 2,700 homes.
In 2007, the United Kingdom Government agreed to an overall European Union target of generating 20% of the EU's energy supply from renewable sources by 2020.
The 2008 Climate Change Act consists of a commitment to reducing net Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 80% by 2050 (on 1990 levels) and an intermediate target reduction of 26% by 2020.
[3] From 2020, a rapid expansion of grid scale battery storage took place, helping to cope with the variability in wind and solar power.
[37] With new interconnectors, specifically the ongoing construction of the NSN Link is expected to finish in 2020 after which the UK will get 1.4 GW of access to less expensive sources in the south Norway bidding area (NO2) of Nord Pool Spot.
[38] Similarly, Viking Link is expected to start operations in 2022,[39] after which the UK will get another 1.4 GW of access to the less expensive west Denmark bidding area (DK1) of Nord Pool Spot.
To date, wave and tidal power have received little money for development and consequently have not yet been exploited on a significant commercial basis due to doubts over their economic viability in the UK.
In South America and Asia, the production of biofuels for export has in some cases resulted in significant ecological damage, including the clearing of rainforest.
[52] At the end of 2011, there were 230,000 solar power projects in the United Kingdom,[53] with a total installed generating capacity of 750 MW.
[55] Solar power use has increased very rapidly in recent years, albeit from a small base, as a result of reductions in the cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels, and the introduction of a Feed-in tariff (FIT) subsidy in April 2010.
Investigations into the exploitation of Geothermal power in the United Kingdom, prompted by the 1973 oil crisis, were abandoned as fuel prices fell.
[citation needed] In 2009, planning permission was granted for a geothermal scheme near Eastgate, County Durham, but funding was withdrawn and as of August 2017[update] there has been no further progress.
[71] Highlands and Islands Community Energy Company based in Inverness are active in developing community-owned and led initiatives in Scotland.
