IGPN - International Green Purchasing Network

November 13, 2012

Energy efficiency could replace 22 UK power stations

UK government launches a wide-ranging energy efficiency strategy including £39 million pot for research into changing behavior. This strategy could cut UK’s energy use by 11% by 2020 while providing a major energy boost to the economy and living standards.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) unveiled the UK’s first National Energy Efficiency Strategy which aims to kick start energy efficiency across all sectors in the UK including housing manufacture and transport. The strategy identifies four significant barriers that have consistently hampered enegry efficiency improvements: an underdeveloped market; lack of information on energy efficiency; and misaligned financial incentives.

With the strategy, DECC will fund a nationwide roll-out of London’s Re:FIT retrofit programme for public buildings, which aims to reduce the risk, cost and time taken for public buildings to install energy efficiency measures through the use of an energy-service company (ESCO) financing model. DECC is also considering rolling out its recently launched Green Deal to cover businesses of all sizes. In addition, the department also plans to invest £39 million in five so-called End Use Energy Demand Centers which will research how to change consumer and business behavior to save more energy.

The report shows that cost effective investments in energy efficiency could save the UK 196TWh in 2020, equivalent to output from 22 power stations. Implementing these recommended measures could reduce energy consumption by 11% by the end of the decade rising to savings of 13% by 2025 compared to business as usual projections. The measures also have the potential to save 41 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions in 2020.

Read more at The Guardian.

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