The Annual Energy Statement for 2014 has been published, with some interesting information.
The Government's energy policies seek to meet three primary objectives, according to the document, which are:
The Annual Energy Statement claimed that the Government’s latest projections indicate that the UK is on track to meet its second and third legislated carbon budgets with current planned policies. This comes after the first carbon budget was met which covered 2008 to 2012.
It also made mention of the new Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) which the Government hopes will become a "new tool to help businesses manage their energy consumption, ensuring that board-level company directors receive quality, costed and cost-effective recommendations identifying energy waste in their organisations". This is a debatable statement after the scheme's lack of guidance and information. The key fact that recommendations do not need to be implemented is also dubious.
The Renewable Heat Incentive was described in the Annual Energy Statement as "the world’s first long-term financial support programme for renewable heat". The scheme is designed to bridge the gap between the cost of fossil fuel heat sources and renewable heat alternatives through financial support for owners of participating installations. The Government made an estimation that the Renewable Heat Incentive could support 5.2 – 7.4TWh of renewable heat by the end of 2015/16.
Another positive statistic stated for renewable energy was that, as result of a commitment to bringing forward cost-effective renewables as part of a balanced, low carbon and secure energy mix, the UK’s renewable electricity capacity has more than doubled since 2010.
Overall, this Annual Energy Statement seems like a pretty positive one, but leaves some gaps still to be filled in the future.
