Britain unveils green energy program for private sector
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The British government unveiled plans on Thursday to increase the proportion of electricity coming from renewable sources from 7 percent to 30 percent by 2020 and a 110-billion-pound (about 171.7 billion U.S. dollars) investment in new power plants, including nuclear ones.
Chris Huhne, the coalition government's Energy and Climate Change Secretary, told members of Parliament (MPs) "We have a once- in-a-generation chance to rebuild our energy market, rebuild investor confidence and rebuild our power stations."
The government predicts that demand for electricity could double by 2050. Investment is needed now, the government says, because a quarter of Britain's national grid of power stations, many of which were built when the system was under government control and when British-mined coal was the main power source, is in need of replacement within the next 10 years.
A quarter of the country's existing generation capacity will need replacing by 2020, as many nuclear and coal plants reach the end of their lives, the equivalent of about 20 large power stations. Some new gas-fired power stations will be needed to complement renewables and the first new nuclear power station.
Britain can also better meet the demands of European Union greenhouse gas emission targets if it increases renewable sources of electricity from the current 7 percent to 30 percent in the next 10 years.
Huhne aims to use government legislation to stimulate Britain's now-privatized energy market -- dominated by electricity and gas and supported by coal -- to invest in and develop low-carbon power plants, including nuclear power stations and wind farms. The 110 billion pound investment will come from the private sector, which will seek to recoup its costs through higher energy costs for consumers now.
Huhne's plan is to attract investment toward low-carbon energy from renewable energy sources (like wind and wave power), nuclear plants, and cleaner fossil fuels. Huhne also wants to diversify the market by attracting new providers.
Under the proposals, the cost of fossil fuel-based energy will be driven up government legislation, from a current 20 pounds ( about 31 U.S. dollars) a ton to perhaps 40 pounds by 2020. This will have the effect of making other forms of power more attractive to producers, particularly nuclear power.
Having pushed up the price of fossil fuels, the proposals also layout a plan to top-up payments to guarantee revenues for low- carbon electricity.
Coal power stations in the future will also be encouraged to use "green" carbon-capture and storage technology with a limit of between 450 and 600 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt/hour of generated electricity.
Looking further ahead, the plan aims to have the power sector largely decarbonized by the 2030s, keeping Britain on track to meet climate change goals the government claims, a task made harder by the government prediction that electricity demand may double by 2050 as more heating and transport is shifted onto the grid to decarbonize the wider economy.
