About the Project
Until the 1960 the UK had to import its oil and gas at relatively high cost. In 1964, the UK Continental Shelf Act (UKCS Act) came into force to regulate the newly established oil industry in the UK North Sea. However, due to the high exploration and production costs of the North Sea oil, very few discoveries were made. After the 1973/74 oil crisis and the significant increase in the oil and gas prices, oil production from the North Sea became viable. This was further boosted after the second oil crisis in 1978 consequent upon the Iranian revolution. Oil and gas production increased after UKCS and the UK became self-sufficient in 1980. However this was not long lived as this self-sufficiency was lost in the mid-1980s and the UK became a net importer again. The historical energy crises which resulted in cut to energy supply and the increase in both energy demand and energy prices all put the UK energy security at a stake.
The UK is subject to a range of environmental and climate change commitments, implemented at the global (for example the Kyoto Protocol), regional (European Union, EU legislation) and national levels. The 2008 Climate Change Act set a binding target of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, relative to 1990 (DECC, 2012). EU legislation includes the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which aims, for example, for the UK to source 15 per cent of its total energy from renewable sources by 2020 (DEFRA, 2014; DECC, 2014a).
In responding to these legislative imperatives and to the energy security concern investing in renewable energy is seen as the obvious solution. However, UK energy policy faces three distinct and potentially contradictory challenges: security of supply, decarburization of the future economy and affordability. It is argued that to meet these challenges, significant investment is needed to diversify the sources of electricity generation in the UK (DECC, 2011; Gov. UK, 2012) UK energy strategy has been built primarily around meeting the energy security objective of the country for both domestic and business uses. This vision is bounded by meeting the UK’s targets on carbon emissions and renewable energy generation.
A key message is that there is no magic bullet to the problems faced. In order for the UK to meet its environmental obligations and to deliver the increasing energy capacity required, significant investment will be required in every energy sector. By definition, UK strategy must involve diversifying the energy mix and reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels (DECC, 2011: 59). The UK’s energy, sustainability and climate change however, cannot be delivered by supply-side action alone. Improving energy efficiency, contributing to reduced energy demand, allowing consumers to save on energy waste and thus reduce their energy bills.
Challenges to the UK energy strategy can be divided into the short term and the long term. In the short term, there is the potential for distribution failures, industrial action and severe weather events as a result of more volatile weather conditions. In the longer term, challenges include changes to market structure, shifts in the geopolitics of energy production, and climate change (DECC, 2012). As seen above, the context within which UK energy policy operates includes measures aimed directly at addressing energy generation and security questions, and measures reflecting wider environmental and sustainability concerns. In meeting these challenges and concerns the UK energy security strategy is said to be designed around competitive energy markets, combined with effective regulation to deliver diversity of supply and robust infrastructure for consumers (DECC, 2012). But the persistent questions are:
1. to what extent is the UK energy security strategy, knitted in the overall UK energy policy, is well designed to meet its defined challenges?
2. to what extend renewable energy options may offer a remedy for the UK energy security? and
3. in order to meet its energy security and climate change challenges, how effective is the UK energy policy in promoting investments in renewable energy options?
Continue with Facebook
