The Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA) has indicated the UK’s renewable industry has shown “great resilience and ingenuity” with the government having failed to match its net zero commitments.
Disclosed within the REview22 report, the UK met 13.6% of its total energy consumption from renewables at the end of 2020. Despite this being a positive for the industry, the UK missed the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) in which the UK committed to deriving 15% of consumption from renewables by 2020.
In order to increase the total consumption from renewable energy, several aspects need to be explored and boosted to provide a budding system full of renewable potential. One of which is to increase grid connectivity and reduce the drastic delay times being witnessed in energy project development.
In September, Current± reported that connection applications quadrupled in the past four years as the renewable energy sector has grown and the need for battery-stored energy has increased ahead of Britain’s impending net zero targets.
Despite this, the UK is still on track for periods of net zero electricity by 2025, ahead of full decarbonisation by 2035.
The growth of the sector financially has also been represented within the REA report. It stated that the market value of the sector will more than double from around £22 billion in 2020, to £46 billion by 2035.
“Despite the immense challenges facing a whole range of sectors over the past few years, REview22 highlights the continued resilience and ingenuity of the renewable energy and clean technology industry,” said Dr Nina Skorupska CBE, CEO of Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology.
“We are projecting that thousands of new jobs and billions of pounds will be added by the sector by 2035, and these figures could be even greater should the government deliver the right support. Of course, these numbers are by no means guaranteed if the government continues to provide patchy and unreliable policy.”
Patchy and unreliable policy can be traced back to the government’s Green Homes Grant. The grant was first introduced in September 2020 and closed in early 2022 having been plagued with issues throughout its lifespan. One of the primary issues had been the long delays due to the scheme having been administered by American firm ICF.
It was reported that members of the public had been waiting months to be issued vouchers and there being delays in installers being paid. This had led the Environmental Audit Committee to describe the domestic decarbonisation support as “woefully inadequate”.
The REA has previously called on the government to improve grid connections and boost investor confidence. The trade association has urged the government to remove policy blockages so that the sector is prepared for a mass rollout of small, medium and large-scale projects to accelerate renewable deployment.