Government announces £80 million investment to cut emissions as renewable energy smashes UK record

£80 million to reduce carbon emissions

The new investment will be used to cut carbon emissions from energy intensive businesses and domestic properties with the aim being to achieve the government’s targets of hitting NetZero by the year 2040.

According to Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng the £80 million of investment will be used to:

• Reduce carbon emissions from industry and homes
• The first phase will be used to help heavy industry adopt green technology and cut energy costs with the aim to protect jobs and reduce carbon emissions.
• Create a new green homes programme that will retrofit all homes with the latest green tech to help people save money and reduce the costs of their energy bills.

The government also revealed how the money will be broken down with £30 million being put towards the first phase of the Industrial Transformation Fund (IETF), which supports manufacturers of energy intensive products to reduce their emissions.

£25 million will be used for new heat networks that are designed to cut heating bills and carbon emissions. One of these networks will be a geothermal one that will harness water in disused mines to heat over 1,000 homes.

£24 million will be used to create new projects designed to develop new energy efficient homes and the installation of green technology.

“We want to invest now to ensure we continue to propel the UK towards a stronger, greener future. This new £80 million investment will help to reduce emissions across our economy, which will save people money on energy bills and protect jobs in heavy industry,” said the Energy Minister. 

Renewable Energy breaks first quarter records

The UK saw more renewable energy records broken at the end of the first quarter of 2020 thanks to winter storms seeing wind power surging ahead of other energy sources.

Official data showed that renewable energy made up 47% of the total UK energy mix in the first three months of the year to set a new clean energy record. The previous quarterly was 39% and set in 2019.

The data shows that a combination of new wind farms coming online and big winter storms such as Ciara, Jorge and Dennis resulted in a surge of wind power generation. The energy produced by the storms and offshore wind farms surged by 53% when compared with the previous year.

The rise of renewable energy combined with a steady supply of nuclear power, which made up about 15% of the UK generation mix, drove fossil fuel power plants to a new record low in the first quarter.

Gas-fired power plants made up less than a third of UK generation in the first quarter compared with over 40% in the first months of 2019, and coal-fired power made up 3.8% of electricity generated in the UK.

“The renewable energy industry’s records were bound to be broken again in the years ahead as the government worked on a massive expansion of renewables as part of the UK’s green economic recovery. This data shows that the clean energy transition is written very large indeed because they were set when we needed it most,” said Rebecca Williams, of Renewable UK. 

Further Reading

Ofgem plans new measures to help the most vulnerable and looks set to backtrack on scrapping short-haul gas tariff

Ofgem to introduce new standards for smaller energy suppliers this winter

Feed in Tariff costs could soar to record highs due to Covid-19 and exceptional weather conditions

Dyball Associates are proud to help new supply businesses successfully launch in the UK market.

Through our energy market consultancy services, and the software we’ve developed, we’re supporting new UK electricity and gas suppliers get set up and start supplying.

For more information on how to start and manage an energy company, get in touch with Dyball Associates today.