UK promises 'green revolution'
2008-06-21 19:51
London - As many as a quarter of
British homes could be fitted with solar heating systems and
thousands of wind turbines erected across the country under
government plans for a "green revolution" to be set out next
week.
Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said the plans, which may
include measures to force homeowners to improve the energy
efficiency of their homes, were aimed at dramatically increasing
Britain's energy supplies from renewables by 2020.
"You will see this week a real determination by the
government to move towards 15 percent of all of our energy from
renewables by 2020," he said. "That is a green revolution."
Britain gets less than 5% of its electricity from
renewables, mainly wind. The government has committed Britain to
getting 10% of its electricity from renewable sources by
2010, and under a European Union deal last year it is also
committed to quadrupling that a decade later.
According to Saturday's Guardian newspaper, which has seen a
copy of the government plan, the proposals seek a 30-fold
increase in off-shore wind power generation, new loans and
grants for businesses to increase green energy supply, a
compulsory measure on households to boost energy efficiency.
'Significant impact'
The plans recognise that the new energy policy could
transform large areas of Britain's landscape and have a
"significant impacts on all our lives ... not all of these
positive", the Guardian reported.
The plans, due to be unveiled next week, come after a
parliamentary report published on Thursday warned Britain would
not meet its own renewable energy targets, and would fail to
meet EU requirements, unless it stepped up action substantially.
Phil Willis, head of parliament's innovation, universities,
science and skills select committee, said the group had been
"consistently disappointed by the lack of urgency expressed by
the government - and at times by the electricity industry - in
relation to the challenge ahead".
But Wicks, speaking on BBC radio, insisted there was now a
"huge momentum" in renewable energy provision and said the
government would ensure that carbon emission reduction was the
"core concept behind our energy strategy".
He described the proposals as "the most ambitious renewable
energy strategy for Britain that we have ever seen".
- Reuters