EU Target for Renewables Causes Grid Concern

30-40% of Britain’s electricity will have to come from renewable energy by 2020 following the announcement by the European Union today.

The staggering target is a major increase on the five percent of electricity currently generated by renewables.

Great Britain’s target for renewables covers transport and heating, but the country has limited scope to develop these other areas, so the reliance is therefore placed on electricity generation.

The announcement will trigger a massive wave of enthusiasm through the renewables industry in the north east, but could present major challenges for the country’s electricity distribution networks.

Hexham based Econnect has been connecting renewable energy to the national grid for over a decade and is one of the pioneers of the industry, having worked on the largest off-shore wind farm in the UK and more recently completed a major study examining the transportation of electricity down the east coast of Scotland.

Chief Executive, Guy Nicholson is understandably delighted with the announcement, but has one or two concerns over the future of the electricity transmission and distribution networks:

“We are already experiencing huge growth at Econnect and this announcement means that this growth will continue for many years to come.

“Our electricity networks are in desperate need of several £billion worth of investment. On the other hand a sustainable energy sector in Britain is vital to a successful economy and we really need to get renewables energised post haste.”

Econnect has been working on technological solutions to these grid issues for some time now and has developed one product in particular that will allow renewable energy to connect to the existing network -without the need to upgrade, as Guy explains:

“Our GenAVC product allows generation plants to connect to the grid without the need for new or upgraded cabling and makes massive savings for the client.

“The future is not just about large-scale wind farms, but about individual turbines, biomass, landfill gas, solar energy and so on, where more electricity generation will be decentralised and operate on a community scale.”

A 30-40% target for renewables may present the industry with some connection issues, but if the physical and regulatory aspects of connection are closely monitored, this latest piece of EU legislation could go down as a defining moment.

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