Cutting emissions from the energy system
Re-shaping the sector
Currently electricity supply in the UK relies mainly on fossil fuel-based generation. In 2009, power stations accounted for approximately 32% of our CO2 emissions. It is a sector that must be re-shaped dramatically as we strive to meet the tough, legally binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions set in the Climate Change Act, Kyoto Protocol and by the EU – and to help meet the UK’s need for secure energy.
Renewable energy technologies (e.g. wind turbines or concentrating solar power), carbon capture and storage (CCS) and nuclear power are all potential components of a decarbonised future energy supply mix, but elements of these technologies remain uncertain, unproven or unpopular.
Current work
- DECC has an innovation support programme designed to help demonstrate and reduce the costs of new low-carbon technologies at commercial scale. Visit the DECC web page on innovation support and funding
- DECC is investing substantial resources in the demonstration of CCS. The individual processes involved in CCS (capture, transport and storage of carbon dioxide) are not new but have yet to be demonstrated together on a commercial scale in power generation. This has been identified as a barrier to CCS deployment, and the aim of the CCS demonstration programme is to show how the technology can be integrated into full-scale power stations. Visit the DECC web page on CCS for more details
- The renewable resources used by technologies such as windfarms and tidal barrages are often located in environmentally sensitive areas. Understanding how proposed generating capacity might affect its surroundings is an important aspect of the work that DECC scientists and engineers are involved in.
Publications
Outputs from the research we are undertaking in this area will be published here.