Why Solar?

The UK government has signed up to the EU Renewable Energy directive which includes a UK target of 15% of energy from renewable technology by 2020. The target is equivalent to a seven fold increase in the UK renewable energy consumption from 2008 levels: the most challenging of any EU member state.

Currently renewable energy represents 2.8% of UK power supply with fossil fuels accounting for 85.8% and nuclear 11.4%.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The power sector is the largest contributor to global CO2 emissions, with power generation representing over 60% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs).

Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal fired power station

Summer in London

Projections indicate an 80% increase in global electricity demand by 2030, and under Business As Usual scenarios, potentially irreversible changes to our ecosystem. Unless clean energy solutions are deployed with urgency and at scale, CO2 emissions will not be stabilised, and the pace of climate change will continue to accelerate.

Climate Change Mitigation

There is an emerging global consensus on the need to implement climate change mitigation strategies that will dramatically reduce our dependence on polluting power generation technologies. In addition to the need for climate change mitigation, there is a growing demand for clean energy for a variety of economic and social reasons: rising costs of fossil fuel power generation; security of supply and energy independence.

Renewable Technologies

There are a limited number of technologies capable of making a material contribution to our need for renewable technology in the medium term. Solar, hydro, wind, geothermal, wave and tidal will all play a role in the new energy generation portfolio mix.