Business Sustain, Environmental Consultants, experts, Coventry, West Midlands

Where does our energy come from?

Electricity

In 2006, most of the UK’s electricity was generated by gas, coal and nuclear stations. Thirty large (>1GW) power stations meet the majority of electricity demand , which is ~40GW at a typical point in time and ~60GW at peak.

In 2006:

Gas provided 39% of electricity. This figure has grown from 1% in 1990 and is predicted to grow further. Gas is also used to heat approximately 70% of homes.
Coal-fired stations provided one-third of the UK’s electricity, down from two-thirds in 1990. Around one third of existing stations will close by 2015 to comply with European law restricting emissions of sulphur dioxide.
Nuclear stations provided a fifth of electricity; but, most existing UK nuclear plants are due to close in the next decade.
Renewable energy provides a small (4.2%) but growing proportion of electricity. There is also growing interest in Combined Heat and Power (CHP), which involves, for example, making use of the heat which arises as a byproduct of electricity generation.

In the next five years:

New generation will mostly be gas-fired plants and wind, with some CHP (Box 1), coal gasification, waste incineration, biomass and hydroelectric power.

In the next fifteen years

Companies like E.On, EDF, and British Energy would like to build large new coal or nuclear stations. Other companies suggest marine renewables (wind, wave, tidal) and gas fired CHP as alternatives. In 2006, E.On applied to build the first UK coal plant in 20 years.

Gas

The UK is currently the world’s fourth largest producer of natural gas and has more than 200 offshore fields in production around Great Britain. The greatest concentrations of gas are found in the southern sector of the North Sea, but significant volumes are also produced from the central and northern North Sea and the Irish Sea. Recent discoveries indicate that further reserves could lie in the north east Atlantic to the west of Shetland.

It is believed that UK gas production peaked in 2000 and is now slowly declining, although significant reserves remain still to be recovered. The UK has increased imports to supplement domestic production.

Since 2006, the UK has received significant natural gas imports through new pipelines from Norway and the Netherlands. A relatively new development for the UK gas market is the import of natural gas in ships in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). A number of LNG import terminals are under construction, with two new large terminals in Wales due to be completed later this year and further expansion at Isle of Grain near London. Over time, LNG imports could account for 40-50% of total UK supply.

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