The development of renewables is essential for climate protection and an important part of our strategy. At the same time, our expertise gives us insight into the challenges and obstacles facing renewables.

How we manage the transition to a lower-carbon economy is one of the most important challenges facing the UK. We have a short-term goal of cutting our CO2 emissions by 26 per cent and delivering 15 per cent of our total energy from renewable sources by 2020, and a longer-term one of reducing CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

Renewables have a key role to play to moving to a low carbon society; wind, biomass, solar, marine power – all have a part to play in lowering emissions.

However, achieving our renewables target is not without challenges. Providing lower carbon energy is crucial but we must also factor in two other key drivers: we need our energy to be affordable and we need it to be secure.

Wind is intermittent and without a workable energy storage system, wind power can’t be always be available when we need it, so other sources need to be available to plug the gap. Renewables also tend to be expensive and can be more time consuming and difficult to build. Offshore wind farm projects for example, are highly dependent on weather and sea conditions and all delays add to the cost. A lack of suitable suppliers can also delay projects being developed and constructed.

We’re one of the leading generators of renewable energy in the UK, with currently 21 wind farms and one of the UK’s largest dedicated biomass plants in Lockerbie, Scotland. We are investing €4 Bn from 2010 – 2013 in renewable generation and carbon sourcing

Alongside Masdar and DONG Energy we’ve also started work on the first phase of the London Array Offshore Wind Farm. We’re building London Array in two phases. Phase One, which is planned to be complete by the end of 2012, will comprise 175 turbines with a combined capacity of 630MW. If approved, the second phase will add enough capacity to bring the total to 1,000MW.
We were awarded the right to seek consent to develop a large-scale offshore wind farm, known as Rampion, off the Sussex coastline by the Crown Estate in the Round 3 offshore wind programme. We’re currently developing a 300MW offshore wind farm off the Humber coast, the Humber Gateway Offshore Wind Farm.

We’re investing in marine as well. We’re joining forces with ScottishPower to trial two Pelamis wave power generators in Orkney.
We’ve already launched our first machine at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) based on the island and it recently generated its first energy into the UK’s grid network.
It will be joined next year by a second machine, which will be built for ScottishPower Renewables and installed alongside. Both companies will then use the information gathered from the trials to look at larger, more commercial schemes.
We’ve also been awarded two sites in the Crown Estate’s first round of marine energy leases, located around 5km off the west coast of Orkney which we believe are large enough for a wave power development of up to 100MW.

As part of the Desertec consortium we’re taking part in a major solar project in North Africa. Closer to home, we're also helping people to access renewable energy by making affordable solar panels a reality for UK homes.

Read the latest conversations about renewables.