Next decade critical to low-carbon transitions

The next decade is important to ensure important development in an affordable, low carbon energy system in the UK. The Energy Technologies Institute made the announcement.

Carbon heavy production needs to be reduced at this opportunity. Out of a total power capacity of approximately 90GW in 2010, 16GW will be decommissioned by the end of 2015. This will open the way for offshore wind, biomass and fossil fuel generation with carbon capture and storage technologies.

The ETI has outlined how the UK can drive the transition to a low carbon energy system by 2050 through the development and integration of clean technologies and solutions.

Andrew Haslett, Chief Engineer at ETI said:

"2050 may seem a long way off but there is no time to invent and deploy a set of novel breakthrough technologies and the cost of adaptation will inevitably be higher than the cost of mitigation. In the next decade the UK should focus on ensuring it is prepared by developing options and exploring trade-offs between particular sets of technologies, and also testing technical, business and regulatory models at scale to give stakeholders the confidence they need to move to full-scale implementation."