Renewables capacity in the South West of England has grown by 37% in the past 12 months to hit nearly 1.2GW and now meets 8.3% of the region’s electricity demand.
The South West Renewable Energy Progress Report, published by Regen SW today, reveals the region leads the way in small and community-scale renewables, boasting 21% of the projects supported by the feed-in tariff. It is second only to Scotland in terms of Renewable Heat Incentive projects, accounting for 14%.
Key areas of growth have been solar PV, which stands at 270MW, biomass (68MW) and onshore wind (23MW). However, the study also reveals the South West is not on track to meet the government target of 15% energy from renewables by 2020.
“This year’s progress report is encouraging but it should be just the start,” said Regen SW chief executive Merlin Hyman.
“With 70% of all investment in energy globally predicted to be in renewables, our success in this market is critical. By meeting our renewables targets we could create 34,000 high-value jobs, become less reliant on uncertain oversees supplied fossil fuels and use our local renewable energy resources to generate income and fuel security for local communities.”
The report concludes that while the foundation stone for renewables is a clear and consistent government policy framework, there is also much more can be done locally to tackle barriers such as grid and planning, and enabling commercial deployment of new technologies.
Devon is the county with the greatest renewables capacity in the region on 380MW, followed by Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (374MW), Somerset (198MW), Wiltshire (157MW), Dorset (133MW), West of England (123MW) and Gloucestershire (109MW).
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