The United Kingdom National Renewable Energy Action Plan is the
National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) for the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. The plan was commissioned by the
Directive 2009/28/EC which required
Member States of the European Union to notify the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
with a road map. The report describes how the United Kingdom planned to achieve its legally binding target of a 15% share of energy from
renewable sources
A renewable resource, also known as a flow resource, is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of ti ...
in gross final
energy consumption by 2020.
Main targets in UK
The history of energy production in the UK has been based on natural resources of
fossil fuels
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ...
. This means that UK has not been as active in exploitation of renewable resources. Compared to many other Member States, the UK is starting from a very low level of renewable energy consumption and thus the challenge of meeting the 2020 targets is even greater.
The
Renewable Energy Directive (2009) sets a target for the UK to achieve 15% of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. This compares to only 1.5% in 2005. There has been a small increase in renewable energy use in recent years; there must be a much greater level of deployment over the next decade in order to meet the target.
The share of
RES heat in 2005 was 0,48 ktoe and will increase up to 6,2 Mtoe. The share will increase from 0,7% to 12%.
Bioenergy in 2020 will still have the biggest share of RES heat and the amount would be 3,6 Mtoe with a seven-fold increase.
The consumption of RES electricity was 2005 1,5 TWh and the share 4,7%. The target for RES electricity for 2020 is 116 TWh. This means a several times increase. The biggest share will come from
wind power
Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to electricity generation, generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable energy, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller Environmental impact of wi ...
(78 TWh and capacity 2800 MW). The
bioelectricity
In developmental biology, bioelectricity refers to the regulation of cell, tissue, and organ-level patterning and behavior as the result of endogenous electrically mediated signaling. Cells and tissues of all types use ion fluxes to communicate e ...
would be 20,6 TWh and from
biogas
Biogas is a mixture of gases, primarily consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste and food waste. It is a ...
5,6 TWh. The increase for
biomass would be five-fold and for biogas 120%.
The RES in the traffic sector in 2005 was 0,188 Mtoe and the increase would be really massive, up to 4,5 Mtoe, in 2020. The share would increase from 0,2% to 10,17%. The consumption of
ethanol
Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...
use would be 1,7 Mtoe and
biodiesel
Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat ( tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil ...
use would be 2,5 Mtoe.
See also
*
Energy in the United Kingdom
Energy in the United Kingdom came mostly from fossil fuels in 2021. Total energy consumption in the United Kingdom was 142.0million tonnes of oil equivalent (1,651 TWh) in 2019. In 2014, the UK had an energy consumption ''per capita'' of 2.78t ...
References
{{reflist
External links
National Renewable Energy Action Plan for the United Kingdom
Renewable energy policy
Action plans