If the government is serious about renewables and energy efficiency, Britain doesn’t need to build major new power stations to keep the lights on, according to a new report released today by independent energy experts Pöyry.

The report finds that, if the UK government is able to achieve its commitments to meet EU renewable energy targets and its own ambitious action plan to reduce demand through energy efficiency, then major new power stations (burning either coal or gas) would not be needed to ensure that Britain can meet its electricity requirements up to at least 2020. The report also concludes that a strong drive for energy efficiency and renewable energy can reduce emissions and assist energy security.

Ministers at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform have claimed that new power stations (such as the unabated coal station proposed by power company E.ON at Kingsnorth in Kent) would be needed to plug a claimed "energy gap". E.ON is also engaged in a high profile campaign to assert that new coal plant is needed to keep the lights on.

But this analysis finds that if Britain delivers on its renewable energy promises, and acts successfully to improve energy efficiency in line with its National Energy Efficiency Action Plan, there would be no gap to plug. Moreover, the report finds that this strategy would reduce the UK’s CO2 emissions by up to 37 per cent by 2020.

The report considered six scenarios for meeting Britain’s commitments to deliver on the binding EU renewable energy commitments for 2020, and for future electricity demand (drawing on both EU and UK targets for energy efficiency), and assessed whether any additional capacity from conventional sources such as coal and gas would be needed to secure the UK’s electricity needs. It concluded that there would be no role for such plants, even taking into account the very few days when there is little or no wind. These scenarios represent a radical shift away from the “business as usual” pathway (under which new power stations may indeed be needed). But such a radical shift is precisely what is required by the government’s stated ambitions on renewables and energy efficiency.

The report is released as campaigners from across the UK and Europe prepare to gather at this year's Climate Camp on the Hoo Peninsula near the Kingsnorth site. Already E.ON has sought to counter the Camp by claiming new coal plants are vital to keep the lights on. Now the most respected analysts in the field have shown that this need not be the case.

Keith Allott, Head of Climate Change at WWF-UK, which commissioned the report, added:

"This report should be good news for the Government. If it gets real on its targets on renewables and energy efficiency then we can keep the lights on, reduce our reliance on expensive fossil fuel imports and dramatically cut our carbon emissions. But a green light to Kingsnorth would at a stroke undermine the Government’s other policies on climate change and Gordon Brown’s promise of a clean energy revolution."

Robin Oakley, head of the climate and energy team at Greenpeace, which also commissioned Pöyry, said:

"Coal is the single most climate-wrecking form of electricity generation. The only reason anyone is even considering building Britain’s first coal fired power station in decades is the claim that we need it to keep the lights on. E.ON’s spin machine and the Labour government have teamed up to hoodwink the public into believing it, but this report busts their argument wide open."

Last year both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown made high-level commitments which led to a proposed target for the UK to generate about 15 per cent of our total energy (heat, transport and electricity) from renewable sources by 2020. To meet the target it is widely accepted that at least 35% of Britain’s electricity will need to come from renewables by 2020. The six scenarios considered in the report reflect several credible ways of meeting that target under different levels of electricity demand and differing contributions from onshore and offshore wind, biomass, and marine and solar power.

In all six of the scenarios considered, there was no need to build any major new fossil-fired capacity – either coal or gas – to ensure that the UK could meet its electricity needs to 2020. In just one scenario was there a slight dip below the 20% margin of spare power capacity, and this was only short-lived. The experts state that this could best be dealt with using 'demand side management' - a technique for reducing demand at key times, or by installing small 'top-up' peaking plant.

In the period after 2020 when more of the UK’s existing coal and nuclear plants are due to close, the report observes that a number of further options could be deployed including highly efficient industrial combined heat and power plants, further roll-out of renewables and, potentially, carbon capture and storage – provided this technology has been shown to be technically and economically viable.

Alison Sutton, WWF press office, 01483 412388
Greenpeace press office – 0207 865 8255

Notes:
Pöyry is Europe’s leading energy consultancy, with 250 specialists across 15 European offices. Read Poyry’s report.

Coal is the most carbon-intensive form of electricity generation. Last year Dr James Hansen of NASA – perhaps the world's leading climate scientist – wrote to Gordon Brown asking that the Kingsnorth plans be blocked unless E.ON can safely capture and bury all the CO2 produced by the new plant. The company has said it might try to sequester a small proportion of the greenhouse gases from a new Kingsnorth, but the plant would still emit 6-8 million tonnes of CO2 every year, the same as the 20 least polluting countries in the world combined.

In his letter to Brown Hansen wrote:

'You have the potential to influence the future of the planet…There are plans for construction of new coal-fired power plants in Great Britain, plants that would have a lifetime of half a century or more. Your leadership in halting these plans could seed a transition that is needed to solve the global warming problem... If Great Britain and Germany halted construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the CO2, it could be a tipping point for the world. There is still time to find that tipping point, but just barely.'

Full copy of letter.

Greenpeace and WWF are members of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, the largest group of people dedicated to action on climate change and limiting its impact upon the world's poorest communities.