Baroness Neville-Rolfe’s speech on energy efficiency delivered to the International Energy Agency – in full. We are also thinking about how to motivate people to install energy efficient solutions. When I was an executive at Tesco, a major supermarket chain, we found that installing lobbies on our stores returned the cost of capital needed within two years. When people move house they are more likely to make improvements to their bathrooms and kitchens, but why not the efficiency of their houses, which can save them money – as well as emissions? Increases in the efficiency of our renewables sector have been particularly marked. This is very welcome since in the long run only systems that don’t require subsidy can be viable. Taking offshore wind power as an example, when the Contracts for Difference Scheme was launched three years ago, we set the maximum price we would pay for electricity generated by offshore projects in 2017 at £140/MWh. In March this year we announced that this would fall to £105 for projects generating in 2021 – already a 25 per cent reduction. With projects competing against each other in an auction we expect the actual price we pay to be even lower. And we have set out our ambition that offshore prices continue to fall. We are keen to promote the greater use of heat networks in built-up areas – they’re a very efficient way of delivering heat, and can utilise a range of low carbon sources. And they work well already in Scandinavia, Germany and France for example, and there are already some in the UK.
Business Green 14th Oct 2016 read more »