A new report from the House of Lords Economic Committee has found that meeting EU targets for renewable energy will increase electricity generation and transmission costs by £6.8bn a year, or 38% in the UK. This translates into an £80 annual fuel bill increase for the average household. This figure does not include costs associated with other areas of energy use such as transport and heat affected by the EU target.

The press release for the report says that the EU targets "may encourage the UK to adopt an unnecessarily costly and risky approach to reducing carbon emissions". The Committee points out that nuclear energy presents a viable, low-carbon alternative that is not intermittent and can be produced at a significantly lower cost than renewable energy.

Lord Vallance, Chairman of the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, said: "We accept that the UK Government, along with others, must take steps to reduce carbon emissions. However we are concerned that the dash to meet the EU's 2020 targets may draw attention and investment away from cheaper and more reliable low carbon electricity generation - such as nuclear and, potentially, fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage."

The Committee also raised deep concerns over the overreliance on unreliable wind power that is likely to come about as a result of the EU targets: "The UK is most likely to adopt wind power as its main means of producing more renewable electricity. This has an inherent weakness in that it cannot be relied upon to generate electricity at the time it is needed. Current policies would take the UK into uncharted territory, with a dependence on intermittent supply unprecedented elsewhere in Europe. To guard against power shortages, wind turbines would need to be backed up with conventional generation. Together with the requirement to replace almost a quarter of the UK's older generating capacity by 2020, this represents a massive investment programme.  Whether it is achievable in the time available is open to doubt."

Download the full report from the PDF icon below.

Going off-grid seems an  excellent idea when looking at what the future may hold, see Electricity Prices in the UK. The front cover of this document is most apt, and the contents are truly frightening.

Published today (5th September, 2008) by John Constable, Director of Policy and Research for the Renewable Energy Foundation and Bob Barfoot, Chairman of North Devon Campaign to Protect Rural England, this white paper examines the Renewables Obligation payment system. Summarising, the paper concludes that, "...we set out to explain why it is that wind energy projects are far and away the most frequent proposals set before the planning system. We have seen that this is not because of any intrinsic merit or economic superiority, but rather because of an imbalance in the Renewables Obligation."

Click the PDF icon to download the full paper.

Published By Tony Lodge for the Centre for Policy Studies in 2008, "Wind Chill - Why wind energy will not fill the UK’s energy gap", examines the Government's over reliance on wind energy.