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The Tools for Environmental Sustainability in the UK

The Tools for Environmental Sustainability in the UK . Keith Barnham Physics Department, Imperial College London Oxford Research Group . Distributed Generation is coming faster than the Government wants .

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The Tools for Environmental Sustainability in the UK

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  1. The Tools for Environmental Sustainability in the UK Keith Barnham Physics Department, Imperial College London Oxford Research Group

  2. Distributed Generation is coming faster than the Government wants • Energy White Paper belatedly recognises that Distributed Generation (DG) can make an important contribution to energy security • Small-scale wind and photovoltaics (PV) alone show DG could contribute much faster than the government thinks/wants • Why isn’t the government supporting DG as much as it could?

  3. Energy Review ignored evidence from ORG and BWEA on Wind Capacity • Germany ~ 9 yrs ahead 10 x capacity of UK • If in the next 9 yrs UK follows the last 9 nine yrs in Germany the UK will have 24 GW in 2020 • The UK has a better wind resource than Germany • BWEA (310 companies) prediction same at 2020 K.W.J.Barnham and M. Mazzer New Statesman Supplement, May 15th, 2006. ORG – Energy Review BWEA – Energy Review Wind O Marine O UK nuclear D > D > BNFL ^ BNFL < UK < UK

  4. Energy Review ignored PV potential UK nuclear D > ^ BNFL < UK K.W.J.Barnham, M.Mazzer, B.Clive, Nature Materials, 5, 161 (2006) • If UK follows German trend of last 4 years => 6 GW PV by 2018 • Japan NEDO planning 100 GW of PV for 2030 as feed-in tariffs fall • Exponential growth – typical of electronic consumer goods • German exponential growth continues as feed-in tariffs fall (214,000 new jobs) • White Paper “hard to draw firm conclusions on effectiveness” of feed-in tariffs

  5. 63% of electricity in UK used in buildings Sunlight on buildings ~ 7x electricity consumption in the buildings 14% efficient 2nd Generation cells on all S-facing walls => 3x nuclear contribution Smart windows Blinds = lenses Focus on small highly efficient cells No transmission of direct sunlight Reduce glare and a/c requirement Max diffuse sunlight - for illumination No need for lights when blinds working (2 – 3) x power from Silicon cells Electricity at time of peak demand Smart Windows with 3rd Generation cells- helping exponential PV Growth continue Imperial College London

  6. Energy Review – need 6 GW of New Nuclear Build to plug 25 GW energy gap in 2025?? • Sum of Wind and PV assuming follow German example • Marine (3 GW BWEA), biomass, energy efficiency, CHP will also make major contribution • 4 GW nuclear new build 2020 (BNFL) irrelevant • Government proposes that evidence on the need for nuclear will not be allowed at future public inquiries

  7. Contrast DG with Central Generation – e.g. problems with New Nuclear Build • New nuclear - too little too late – linear turn on at best • DG can grow exponentially e.g.PV in Germany/Japan • Wind/PV can do the job with no fuel/minimum waste • Nuclear not low carbon – will get worse > 2030 • Nuclear facilities potential terrorist targets • We still don’t know how or where to store the waste for > 1M years (White paper “many years”) • Who will invest in nuclear given • many homes, businesses self sufficient by 2020 • Historic waste costs ~ 4 x new build costs

  8. Conclusions and Discussion Points • DG and wind and PV in particular would expand faster in UK with feed-in tariffs • Marine, biomass, energy efficiency, CHP could also all make big contributions • Why does government dismiss feed-in tariffs which have put German PV 100x ahead? • Why is the government so keen on nuclear? • Why are Germany and Japan 10 years ahead of the UK in exploiting renewables?

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