Renewable energy industry can smash UK's reliance on foreign fuel imports

26/05/2014

Foreign fuel imports continue to dominate the UK electricity market, according to data released at the Hay Festival by renewable electricity supplier Good Energy.

The figures reveal the UK imported over 60% of the fuel it used to generate electricity in 2012, up by 12% since 2011.

At the same time UK renewables have shown tremendous growth. Good Energy’s calculations show that natural sources like sun, wind and water provided over a quarter of all the UK-based power used to generate electricity in 2012.

Juliet Davenport. CEO and Founder of Good Energy, said: “We are working towards a future free from fossil fuels. We need to get everyone involved, today - a new generation of people, business and society working together for a cleaner, more secure future.

“By choosing how your electricity is sourced you really can make a difference by creating demand for more renewable power. And our Feed-in Tariff community who make their own electricity can benefit from cheaper bills and avoid being entirely reliant on the big utilities.”

The Department of Energy and Climate Change estimates that British renewable power production is up by 30% accounting for almost 15% of the electricity the UK generated in 2013. That’s the equivalent of 12.5 million homes – twice the number of households in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Southampton, Nottingham, Sheffield, Bristol and Brighton combined.

An important part of growth in renewables has been the impact of small generators under the Feed-in Tariff, which now number more than 430,000 installations with a total capacity of more than 2GW. Good Energy has seen a 28% growth in its network of home and commercial micro-generators in the past 12 months, proving that this trend is long-standing.

Good Energy chief Davenport added: “We are partnering with the Hay Festival to stimulate discussion and debate about how the arts community can help us make the cultural leap needed to tackle climate change and fill the energy gap in the future.

“We are really looking forward to engaging with the UK’s leading thinkers and cultural leaders in an atmosphere open to new ideas.”

Renewable energy remains a very popular power source with the UK public. Recent Government research found that 80% of people support the use of renewables to provide electricity, fuel and heat for the country.

Six in ten said they would be happy to have a large scale renewable energy development in their area, an increase on last year.

People are concerned about the nation’s reliance on imports of foreign fuels. A recent research study revealed that people want to see a reduction in fossil fuel usage; 74% of participants were very or fairly concerned about climate change, while 82% were worried about the UK becoming too dependent upon energy from other countries.

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National Energy Efficiency Programme - Ministry of Industry and Trade