Wind News

Wednesday 10 March 2010

This chart featuring in the ERP report shows a pipeline of selected energy technologies showing progress required by 2020

The UK must press ahead with large-scale demonstration of energy technologies which are still in the development stage, such as deep offshore wind, in order to meet 2050 climate change targets, according to a report from the Energy Research Partnership (ERP).

The ERP is a high level forum co-chaired by DECC's chief scientific advisor and the executive director of the National Grid. It aims to give strategic direction to UK energy research, development and demonstration and to increase the level of investment in innovation to achieve energy policy goals.

Its "Energy innovation milestones to 2050" report was published last week (March 5) and argues that the next 10 years are critical, with key technologies needing demonstration before policy and investment decisions can be made that will affect where the UK's energy comes from and how it is used.

In terms of the progress required by 2020, charts within the document highlight wind and third generation nuclear as currently being in the deployment stage, with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and deep offshore wind and marine technologies moving through the demonstration stage.

According to the ERP, these must be deployed quickly in order to identify the technologies with the greatest potential over the longer term. The forum claims that there is a pressing need for investment in energy technologies with the greatest potential to increase the chances of early deployment.

It also argues that large-scale pilot studies will be vital to assess how technologies perform in a real environment, the impact they have on the wider energy system, and how people react to them.

Focus

Nick Winser, co-chair of ERP and executive director of National Grid, said: "Innovation in energy technology is vital to meeting 2050 carbon targets. Technologies that are available now or will be soon all have their part to play, but we cannot rely on these alone.

"If we pick the right areas to focus our early research investment on now, we'll give ourselves the best chance of harvesting valuable new technologies in the future that will help us reach emission targets."

Professor David MacKay, DECC's chief scientific advisor and co-chair of ERP, added: "This report highlights that the next 10 years are crucial for developing energy technologies. We are faced with critical questions about the future cost and effectiveness of some technologies.

"Resolving these uncertainties could take years, so we need to press ahead with the demonstration of a range of technologies, including electricity generation, transport and retrofitting buildings, so that we identify technologies with the greatest potential over the longer term."

The ERP report is based on a wide-reaching analysis of scenarios and roadmaps from industry, academia and government covering the next 40 years.