The United Kingdom's government pledged to lower the UK's carbon emissions by eighty percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. Recently, however, UK public has begun to wonder if the government is as dedicated to the cause as they claim to be.
An influential website, Wallstreetpit.com, said in a recent article that BP, a large energy company with headquarters in the UK, is closing down its Chinese, Turkish, Indian and British projects and focusing their attention on the United States. The same article implies that approximately thirty percent of the energy supply for the UK is supposed to come from windfarms. There were calls from opinion leaders in the UK asking the government why it has allowed BP to focus on the US when it (the government) says the future of British energy is green.
According to an article by the Guardian, Great Britain is one of the best locations in the world to be home to wind technology development. The popularity of Great Britain is owed mostly to the long coastline and good wind conditions that the country is famous for.
This same article names a new partnership between two major wind technology companies, Iberdola Renewables and Vattenfall, which will be building a new wind farm in the UK. This wind farm will cost 780m pounds to build and have an expected output of 300MW. Is it the pulling out of BP that allows for this new joint venture to be built? Why is wind technology being left up to private enterprise if the government is supposed to be fully behind it?
More criticism has been lodged about the funding and difficult to understand planning that the government will need if it does, indeed, plan to invest so much of its attention to green energy. If wind farms are supposed to be responsible for thirty percent of the United Kingdom's energy supply, a large number of farms will need to be constructed to keep up with the energy demand. An independent group, The Carbon Trust, estimates that the building of these windfarms will need to speed up considerably and, at the same time; the project budget will need to cut about sixteen billion pounds from its original projections. A website called Redgreenandblue.com says that only twenty five percent of the windfarms the UK needs will actually be constructed by the self imposed 2020 deadline.
UK residents understand that the future of energy production lies with renewable energy and not the existing power grid. Renewable energy is more cost effective and is better for the environment than the current system. Still, with so many roadblocks in the way, each one of us should be wondering just how serious the UK government's commitment to renewable energy is. If it is truly committed why is the project slowing down and losing money? What is getting in the way of the 2020 goal?
An influential website, Wallstreetpit.com, said in a recent article that BP, a large energy company with headquarters in the UK, is closing down its Chinese, Turkish, Indian and British projects and focusing their attention on the United States. The same article implies that approximately thirty percent of the energy supply for the UK is supposed to come from windfarms. There were calls from opinion leaders in the UK asking the government why it has allowed BP to focus on the US when it (the government) says the future of British energy is green.
According to an article by the Guardian, Great Britain is one of the best locations in the world to be home to wind technology development. The popularity of Great Britain is owed mostly to the long coastline and good wind conditions that the country is famous for.
This same article names a new partnership between two major wind technology companies, Iberdola Renewables and Vattenfall, which will be building a new wind farm in the UK. This wind farm will cost 780m pounds to build and have an expected output of 300MW. Is it the pulling out of BP that allows for this new joint venture to be built? Why is wind technology being left up to private enterprise if the government is supposed to be fully behind it?
More criticism has been lodged about the funding and difficult to understand planning that the government will need if it does, indeed, plan to invest so much of its attention to green energy. If wind farms are supposed to be responsible for thirty percent of the United Kingdom's energy supply, a large number of farms will need to be constructed to keep up with the energy demand. An independent group, The Carbon Trust, estimates that the building of these windfarms will need to speed up considerably and, at the same time; the project budget will need to cut about sixteen billion pounds from its original projections. A website called Redgreenandblue.com says that only twenty five percent of the windfarms the UK needs will actually be constructed by the self imposed 2020 deadline.
UK residents understand that the future of energy production lies with renewable energy and not the existing power grid. Renewable energy is more cost effective and is better for the environment than the current system. Still, with so many roadblocks in the way, each one of us should be wondering just how serious the UK government's commitment to renewable energy is. If it is truly committed why is the project slowing down and losing money? What is getting in the way of the 2020 goal?
About the Author:
Tal Potishman, editor of Heating Central, writes articles about plumbers, central heating, Putney plumbers, underfloor heating and solar thermal. He specializes in helping save money by advising on efficient heating.
