At the end of November 2012, the government unveiled radical plans which will change the way energy is consumed in the UK.As part of its commitment to lower carbon emissions, the government’s proposals are to reduce the UK electricity consumption by 2030. A 10% reduction in electricity usage in the UK would produce savings of £4 billion and save 4.5 megatonnes of carbon. This saves the equivalent of 5 power stations worth of electricity. By making the changes now, the government hopes to save money by not having to spend on expensive new energy generation.
The government is targeting all consumers of electricity in the UK whether they are householders, business owners or industrial users. In a nutshell, practically everyone will fall into at least 1 bracket.
So how is the government planning on achieving their proposals?
Some financial incentives a targeted at specific sectors. Homeowners are set to receive a financial 'reward' for running their home more efficiently .
There are a number of plans in the pipeline. One proposal is to have a financial incentive for all energy efficient items in the home. This includes items such as energy saving light bulbs. A payment would be made for each Kwh of energy saved by using energy efficient produced.
Further financial incentives are planned for all sectors who replace older, less efficient equipment for newer, more energy efficient items such as lighting, pumps and motors which will greatly assist the government in meeting their proposal of permanently reducing electricity consumption by 2030.
Other proposals include customers obtaining a cheaper tariff in return for low carbon electricity usage. With energy prices are rising at an alarming rate, customers would have the choice of exchanging low carbon usage with a cheaper tariff.
There are also suggestions of finding ways to store energy in the home or within a locality and reduce demand by controlling the use of household central heating remotely.
What does all this mean for now?
By putting these plans into action now, the UK will be at the forefront of energy saving and the production of energy efficient products in a growing global market. This will also drive growth in green jobs.
If nothing is done to address the need to reduce our electricity consumption, there is a high likelihood that electricity will be extremely limited in its use and that the lights will go out completely across towns and cities in a bid to save precious fossil fuels.
Currently the UK relies too highly fossil fuels and now it the time for a radical 'once in a generation' reform of electricity consumption.
At Trade Skills 4U we consider these proposals as an excellent move. We have been raising awareness of renewable energies for many years now and our students come to us from all over the UK to train in our renewable energy training centre which is the most advanced of its kind in the UK.
We fully support the governments proposals to reduce electricity usage across all sectors in the UK. We are no longer as a country, able to continue to rely on fossil fuels as our only source of energy consumption.
There are huge advantages of using renewable technologies which include solar, wind, biomass, water harvesting, source heat pumps and combined heat and power. There is huge interest, potential and opportunity available in renewable energies currently and we predict this is just the tip of the ice berg.