The report, chaired by former energy minister Charles Hendry MP and Opposition Energy and Climate Change Spokesperson in the House of Lords Baroness Worthington, has been compiled by independent think tank
Carbon Connect.
It presents over 30 findings as part of an on-going 12-month, cross-party inquiry into the future of UK electricity generation.
Baroness Worthington,said:
“The future of gas has dominated the energy debate in recent months, but this report restores much needed balance by clearly showing the uncertainty surrounding the future of UK coal power stations.
“There are risks of prolonged high carbon emissions from both coal and gas power stations.
“Fossil fuels will continue to make a contribution to our energy mix for some time but this cannot come at the expense of our leadership on climate change.
“This welcome and detailed report explains the importance of investing in carbon capture and storage to provide a future for fossil fuels and also touches on other solutions such as demand reduction and biomass conversion.”
The report, The report, entitled Future Electricity Part 1: Power from Fossil Fuels, said that UK carbon and capture storage programme, although one of the best, is still not enough to deliver cheapest decarbonisation.
It also warns of the risk of high emissions from the uncertain future of many coal power stations and uncertain deployment of new low carbon power in 2020s and says there is an important ‘backup’ role for gas power stations in the 2020s as part of transition to 2030 decarbonisation
The report argues that significantly decarbonising the power sector by 2030 will prove the most successful strategy on energy sustainability, security and affordability grounds, and that switching the UK’s reliance on coal to gas generation - while using fossil fuel power stations increasingly for backup purposes - will be the most viable method of achieving this.
The potential for UK shale gas is “highly uncertain and unlikely to give UK cheap gas”.
The Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) is sponsoring the independent work of
Carbon Connectin the Future Electricity Series. Peter Hardy, Head of Technical Services at IGEM, said:
“IGEM is pleased with the quality of insight the report provides at a crucial time for power generation, as the Energy Bill passes through Parliament and warnings of future outages appear in the media. While the report finds a plurality of primary sources must be combined for future generation, it recognises the continuing role of Natural Gas for baseload but also back-up capacity in counteracting the intermittency of renewables.”