Economic Affairs - Fourth Report
The Economics of Renewable Energy
Here you can browse the report which was ordered by the House of Lords to be printed 12 November 2008.
CONTENTS
Terms of Reference
REPORT
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2: RENEWABLES AND THE UK ENERGY
SYSTEM
Figure 1: Energy Mix 2007
Figure 2: Energy flows in the UK, 2007
The electricity system
Figure 3: Predicted electricity demand and
generation capacity after forecast closures
Energy policy objectives
Renewables and energy policy
CHAPTER 3: TECHNOLOGIES FOR RENEWABLE
ELECTRICITY GENERATION
Wave and tidal generation
Hydroelectric
Biomass
Solar
Renewable generation mix
Figure 4: Generation from renewables
in the UK
Britain compared to other European countries
Table 1: Gross Electricity Consumption
from renewable sources in the EU 2006 (in percentages)
Figure 5: Generation sources in Europe, 2006
The base cost of electricity generation from
renewable sources (excluding additional system costs, addressed
in Chapter 4, and support costs, addressed in Chapter 6).
Figure 6: Costs of different types of
electricity generation (excluding back-up and grid integration)
Inferring costs from feed-in tariffs
Comparing the cost of renewables with fossil
fuel and nuclear power
Table 2: Estimates of the cost of electricity
generation in pence per kWh produced. These figures exclude
the costs of backup conventional plant and grid integration, which
are explored in Chapter 4
Future changes in the costs of renewable
generation
Figure 7: Learning curves for types of renewable
generation
Research to improve renewable energy technologies
and reduce their costs
Noise, visual and other negative impacts
of renewable deployment
CHAPTER 4: RENEWABLES IN THE ELECTRICITY
SYSTEM
Intermittency—a constant problem?
Peak demand and capacity credit
Storage—a permanent solution to intermittency
The impact on the system average cost of
electricity generation of an increased share from renewables
Table 3: Prediction of the impact of
increasing amounts of renewable power on the system average base
cost of generation
Investment in the Electrical Grid
Table 4: Predicted total costs in 2020
of electricity generation and transmission with 34% of generation
from renewables, including allowance for back-up and grid integration
Grid connection policy
Grid charges and access
Delays in Grid connections
Surplus power
Transmission charges and losses
Mitigating intermittency by more connections
to the Continental grids
CHAPTER 5: RENEWABLES FOR HEAT AND TRANSPORT
Costs surrounding greater deployment of renewable
heat technologies
Figure 8: Levelised project cost ranges at
2006 prices by the Pöyry energy consultancy group
The costs of renewable heat compared to electricity
Transport
Costs and carbon emissions
Table 5: Cost estimates of carbon reduction
using renewable energy sources
CHAPTER 6: POLICY ON RENEWABLE ENERGY
The role of renewable energy in UK energy
policy
Government intervention in the energy market
Support mechanisms and their costs
Table 6: Support for renewable energy
Micro generation
Fuel bills
Support for the development of renewable
energy technology
Renewable energy in the Planning system
The 15% target
CHAPTER 7: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
APPENDIX 1: Economic Affairs Committee
APPENDIX 2: List of Witnesses
APPENDIX 3: Call for Evidence
APPENDIX 4: Current Status, Future
Prospects and Actions on Renewable Technologies in the UK
APPENDIX 5: Comparative cost estimates
submitted to the Inquiry in mid-2008 of renewable (excluding hydro),
fossil and nuclear energy generation. In the case of renewables,
they do not allow for extra costs of backup conventional generating
capacity or grid integration, which are explored in Chapter 4.
APPENDIX 6: Future Renewable Energy
Technologies
APPENDIX 7: Renewable Electricity
in Denmark
APPENDIX 8: Transmission Access Proposals
APPENDIX 9: The Renewables Obligation
APPENDIX 10: Glossary of Terms and
Abbreviations
NOTE:
(Q) refers to a question in oral evidence
(p) refers to a page of written evidence
The Report of the Committee is published in Volume I, HL Paper
No. 195-I
The Evidence of the Committee is published in Volume II, HL Paper
No 195-II
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE - VOLUME II (HL 195-II)
WRITTEN EVIDENCE - VOLUME II (HL 195-II)
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