Britain Negotiating on EU Renewable Targets - Wicks
Date: 01-Feb-08
Country: UK
Author: Jeremy Lovell
Last week the Commission told Britain it had to derive 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources like wind and waves by 2020 as part of the bloc's agreed goal of getting 20 percent of energy from those sources by then.
"That is an extremely demanding target. We are negotiating about that," Wicks told a parliamentary committee.
"Our share of the costs will be very high compared with other European Union states."
He ducked a question on whether that meant Britain was trying to get a lower target. Later in the two-hour evidence session Wicks hinted an extension of the date could be part of the discussions with the Commission.
If Britain was in the middle of a major wave or tidal project such as a tidal barrage in the Severn Estuary in western England, which would deliver the target but a few years late, then the Commission should take that into account, Wicks said.
There have been reports, regularly denied, that Britain is trying to wriggle out of its renewable energy targets because of the difficulty of achieving them and the high costs to industry.
Britain derives just under 2 percent of its energy from renewable sources, primarily wind power, which translates as about 5 percent of its electricity.
Achieving the EU target would mean at least a seven-fold jump, taking the renewable contribution to electricity generation to between 35 and 40 percent.
"This is a revolution," Wicks said.
He expects a huge expansion of offshore wind power, where costs are roughly double those of onshore wind farms. These are already more expensive than conventional power generation.
Scientists say global average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to carbon gas emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport.
Wicks is an advocate of local generation such as roof-top wind turbines, and combined heat and power which captures and uses waste heat. He said Britain also needed new nuclear power stations and carbon-capturing coal- and gas-powered plants.
Rising energy costs could boost the battle against climate change by making people more thrifty in their use, prompting companies to become more energy efficient and making expensive low carbon technologies more viable, Wicks said.
But they also had an unacceptable political cost, forcing millions of people into fuel poverty -- when households have to spend at least 10 percent of their income on energy bills.
"It is a disgrace that in a civilised society some of us are cold," Wicks said. "There has to be some seriously radical thinking on this."
(Editing by Robert Woodward)
