Consumers fund free energy saving LED lighting initiative

Technology News | July 17, 2014

By eeNews Europe

Batteries / Power Supplies Optoelectronics

The Report claims that as much as £45 billion of investment had been secured in electricity generation and networks alone between 2010 and 2013.

Davey pointed out that Solar PV had attracted £6.4 billion of private investment between 2010 and 2013. The report confirmed that since 2010, an average £7 billion a year had been invested in renewable energy which compares to £3 billion a year in the previous parliament.

In the UK electricity generation from renewable sources has doubled since 2010 and now supplies 15% of the UK’s electricity demands. Earlier in 2014, eight renewable energy projects received contracts providing up to £12 billion of private sector investment and up to 8,000 jobs

Davey claimed that the UK had become the world leader in offshore wind and has more than any other country which supports up to 18,000 jobs. By 2020 the UK could see offshore wind powering almost 7 million homes. The report also claims that onshore wind has attracted £7.6 billion of investment between 2010 and 2013 and supports 17,000 jobs.

Davey said: "We inherited a legacy of energy underinvestment from Labour and we’ve spent the last four years turning this around."

"We can’t be complacent. We’ve put in place the necessary reforms and now Ernst & Young rank the UK as one of the best places in the world for renewables investment. But we know that there are threats from the right, particularly on onshore wind, and from the Labour Party with their energy price freeze policy."

To coincide with the release of the ‘Energy Investment Report’ Davey announced £20m of taxpayer cash for a trial scheme in which businesses will be offered funding to carry out energy efficiency improvements “like replacing old light bulbs with LEDs or improving motors and pumps”.

The move could see UK households pay millions of pounds on their energy bills to provide supermarkets and airports with free LED lighting, under energy department plans to cut the UK’s power usage.

UK businesses will compete for the funding in a reverse auction, and will be able to bid for the entire cost of the work to be covered, or for it to be partially subsidised. The businesses would then enjoy cheaper energy bills as a result.

More than 300 organisations including ‘hospitals, airports and supermarket chains’ have expressed interest in the auction according the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The plan is intended to reduce national electricity demand, easing the risk of blackouts and averting the need for more power stations to be built. If the trial is successful, ministers will continue to offer such cash through the billpayer-funded ‘capacity market’.