Yesterday's post asked whether the UK could encourage a shift in energy use through the feed-in-tariff. Yes, says Mike Pepler, our UK awards manager, it could help balance out energy use.
Peak demand in the UK during the winter is between 5pm and 7pm (see pic above and the half-hourly live table here ). We need to even out energy demand throughout the day, regardless of whether or not households install renewables. At some point we could all be paying different electricity prices depending on time of day we use the energy. A tool in the feed-in-tariff to incentivise 'smart consumption' is therefore a step in the right direction.
But we have to watch out that such incentives don't deepen imbalances within society. One point I’ve heard raised by people working to tackle fuel poverty is that people in poverty can’t afford the new appliances to take advantage of electricity prices that vary according to time of day. If we moved towards time-sensitive pricing, they would miss out on the savings. Not only that, but the current feed-in-tariff is actually subsidised by all electricity consumers, but only those installing micro-renewables get the benefit.
These disadvantages don't mean we shouldn't have a feed-in-tariff. We need new generation capacity to reduce CO2 and to keep the lights on. Since that's in everybody's interest, you could say it's fair we all pay a bit to make it happen. But we must also be realistic about what solar can do. We will need other sources as well, and storage too.
Friday, 7 January 2011
Yes, the feed-in-tariff could shift the way we consume energy
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Could the UK follow Germany’s lead in changing feed-in-tariffs to get us to use our own energy ?
An article in Renewable Energy World today picked up on a tool that's been brought in by the German government to incentivise those people who have installed micro-renewables to change the pattern of their energy consumption.
The German feed-in-tariff not only encourages PV installation, it also encourages "own-consumption". The government will pay those who have installed solar more money per kWh hour for the energy they consume themselves.
This new incentive addresses the fact that people with solar panels produce energy during the day when the sun is out and yet they consume it in the evening when they are home from work (see graph above). The new policy could encourage more people to use smart appliances that switch on during the day. It could also make people more aware not just of what energy they are using, but also when they are using it.
Is this a policy that might work in the UK?
