May 2006
Survey Finds Public Support For Renewables
The Government has set a target of 10% of electricity supply from renewable energy by 2010. In 2004, 3.6% of the UK's electricity supply came from all sources of renewable energy. This leaves at least another 6.4% to achieve in the 6 years from 2004. So how is the Government planning to do this and will the public be supportive?
At the recent renewables exhibition in Aberdeen, All-Energy 2006, Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister, answered these questions in part by saying, "To do this we will need more schemes like the Whitelee wind farm which was recently given the green light by the Scottish Executive. This project will be the largest onshore wind farm in Europe when it is completed and will provide clean energy for 200,000 homes, almost the whole of Glasgow."
The Energy Minister also welcomed the findings from the first DTI commissioned NOP survey into public attitudes towards renewables.
The main conclusions of the survey are:
- The survey found that 85% of the public support renewable energy.
- Nearly all respondents have heard of some form of renewable energy. Solar, wind and hydroelectric energies are the most well known, whereas less than half of people have heard of biomass or bio-energy.
- Overall, people are in favour of renewable energy, including the use of wind power, and they support Government policy on this subject.
- Although over half of all respondents strongly agree that they are in support of renewable energy and favour the use of wind power, only a third (32% strongly agree) would actually be happy to live within 5km of a wind power development, indicating that renewable energy is often deemed a good thing only as long as it does not have a direct impact on ones standard of living.
- 31% of respondents to the survey think that renewable energy sources are too costly and this outweighs the environmental benefits they may have.
Overall, these findings should help the Government to achieve its target of 10% of electricity from renewables by 2010, and should also be welcomed by manufacturers and installers of renewable energy technology.
To find out whether the Government are on track to meet their target, the "2010 Target" project aims to provide regular data with which to track the progress towards achieving the 2010 target. These data are now made publicly available via the Restats website.
To help the Government achieve its target it is encouraging renewable energy projects and installations with the provision of funding.
The DTI's Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) will provide grants for microgeneration technologies for householders, community organisations, schools, the public sector and businesses. For details of how to apply for grants contact Pro Enviro or go to the LCBP website.
If you would like to find out how you could benefit from renewables, and solar PV in particular, contact Nersi Salehi on 01788 538 150.
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