UK demands for clean energy policy reviews

The value of Europe’s top 20 clean energy utilities have dropped by half in the past six years, suggests a report from Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

Projections suggest that more people using local energy sources such as own solar panels will reduce the size of the energy market available to utilities by half in the next two decades.

NEW technologies like solar panels and high-tech batteries can provide give cheaper, cleaner and secure electricity supplies in UK.

The government should renovate policies upholding the damaging system of the large-scale utilities, and support new technologies and innovative businesses, urges the report.

Already, the costs of solar power have fallen in countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Australia and the south-west US.

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Electricity produced from solar without subsidies is as cheap as power from the grid, report suggests.

Barclays bank has estimated that solar systems with batteries to store power will be as cheap as electricity from the grid for 20 per cent of US electricity consumers within four years.

By 2020, Citibank has projected for UK that solar power will reach grid parity when it is as cheap as electricity from the grid.

Costs of onshore wind power are slashing down with prices touching the wholesale electricity price in Italy, Spain, China and the UK.

Technologies that include smart appliances to manage electricity demand and highly efficient lights are disrupting the traditional systems and are set to end the dominance of the big utilities, say the report.

But the technologies, able to produce cheaper, cleaner electricity are being held back by policies that favor the old large-scale system, IPPR said.

Measures are needed to reform the electricity market such as fining suppliers for overcharging customers who have remained loyal to them since privatization.

It urged a review of network regulation to accelerate development of a smart grid that manages demand more effectively, that government should switch its support to small-scale technologies and there should be large-scale deployment of solar.

Distributed electricity technologies such as solar power, batteries and smart thermostats gives hope, but they are being held back by a bias in policy making and regulation which favors the large-scale utility business model, said, Will Straw, associate director, IPPR.

A fundamental change is required so that the businesses and entrepreneurs developing new technological solutions have a level playing field with the incumbent utilities. It is time to break with the past and embrace the brighter new future that these technologies offer, concludes the report.

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