Britain risks widespread electricity blackouts unless it improves the network’s ability to balance intermittent supply from renewable energy sources, a leading engineer has warned.
Fears the UK’s ageing fleet of gas-powered plants will not be able to cope when wind levels are low
The UK is legally bound to produce nearly a third of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2020, requiring a large number of rapidly deployable gas-fired power stations to be on standby to pick up the slack at times when the sun and wind are insufficient.
Hugh Sharman is an engineering consultant who worked on a government-commissioned, but unpublished, report looking at how to keep the lights on in the face of soaring renewable energy use. He warned that Britain’s ageing fleet of gas-powered plants will not be able to cope with the task of rapidly “balancing” the country’s electricity supply when wind levels are low.