100percentrenewableuk is now fundraising to build funds to commission a study on how 100percent renewable energy would work in the UK. Please donate to this cause and please spread the word to others to support this. To donate go to the GoFundMe website here
Back 100 per cent renewable energy for the UK!
You can directly help the campaign to ensure that the UK energy system is fully sustainable by backing us to commission and promote a study of implementation of a 100 per cent renewable energy scenario in the UK. This would be achieved within a net zero carbon scenario by 2050. We shall use this study to campaign for the adoption of a 100 per cent renewable energy target and argue that this is a practical and desirable course to take to avoid the problems associated with nuclear power and fossil fuels.
Because of the dominance of the fossil fuel and nuclear energy industries there is very little research into what a 100 per cent renewable energy system would look like and how it can be brought into being. But a small company which does not give profits to shareholders has been formed to campaign for a 100percent renewable UK. That’s us!
We want to commission academics from LUT University in Finland (who have a good track record of doing this type of modelling) to build a 100 per cent renewable energy model of the UK and describe this model in documents and videos. We shall then promote the model through use of articles and videos on the websites, meetings, lobbying politicians and officials, liaising with other energy NGOs in the process and organising petitions where appropriate. All of this will cost over £22,000 to achieve.
Currently the nuclear industry and the fossil fuel industry is arguing that this cannot be done without them; but this is a distraction that will only slow the achievement of the UK’s net zero carbon target, which should be achieved by 2050. Official funding bodies tend to be pro-nuclear and pro-fossil fuel and are unsupportive of our aims. Hence there is a pressing need to set up a project to model 100 per cent renewable energy for the UK
Those urging you to support this appeal include:
- Jonathon Porritt, Founder, Director, Forum for the Future; Professor Tom Burke, Founding Director of E3G; Alison Downes, Executive Director, Stop Sizewell C Campaign; Professor Nick Eyre, Professor of Energy and Climate Policy, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford; Susan Roaf, Emeritus professor of Architectural Engineering, Heriot Watt University; Professor Ben Sovacool, University of Sussex; Dr Sarah Darby, Associate Professor, Energy Programme, Environmental Change Institute; Professor Peter Strachan, The Robert Gordon University Aberdeen Business School; Dr David Toke, Director, 100percentrenewableuk, also Reader in Energy Politics, University of Aberdeen; Dr Paul Dorfman, Founder and Chair Nuclear Consulting Group, Honorary Senior Research Associate UCL Energy Institute; Jane Clarke, NEU Haringey Branch; Professor Bryan Wynne, Professor of Science Studies and Research Director of the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change; Professor Andrew Stirling, Professor of Science and Technology Policy, University of Sussex; Ellen Renton, Helensburgh CND; Professor David Elliott, Technology Policy Group,The Open University; Professor Stephen Thomas, Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), University of Greenwich; Dr Ian Fairlie, Vice President CND; Professor Richard Cowell, School of Geography & Planning, Cardiff University, Professor Andrew Blowers, Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG), Dr Phil Johnstone Research Fellow Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), Dr Dan van der Horst, University of Edinburgh
As our own research has indicated, nuclear power gets in the way of a decentralised energy system and it is very expensive. The fossil fuel industry claims we should invest in ‘carbon capture and storage’, but not only is this very expensive, but it will itself involve significant greenhouse gas emissions. By contrast an energy system based on solar and wind power and perhaps other renewables such as tidal, geothermal small hydro and wave is much cheaper and fits in much better with the modern digitalised where energy efficiency is integrated with energy supply.
LUT will do the modelling on the basis of 100%REUK scenario(s) that do not include biomass as supply resources other than biogas from waste sources. There shall be an alternative nuclear energy and fossil CCS scenario based on a scenario drawn from the UK Government document ‘Powering our net zero future’ (BEIS 2020). The 100%REUK scenario(s) should be net zero carbon by definition.
The LUT team has published more than 50 scientific articles on 100%
renewable energy system transition studies and receives many scientific citations, placing the LUT team among the three leading teams in the world on the topic. Several articles and reports are published on the case of Europe, or specific European countries. The LUT model has been assessed as one of the leading energy system models for comprehensive energy transition studies in independent review. The Clients of the LUT team span a range from NGOs (e.g. Greenpeace), Think Tanks (e.g. Agora Energiewende, Energy Watch Group), associations (e.g. SolarPower Europe), national energy agencies (e.g. dena – German Energy Agency), industry players (e.g. Wärtsilä), and of course public funding (e.g.H2020, Business Finland, Academy of Finland).”
Short bio for LUT Team Leader:
Christian Breyer, PhD (Tech), Professor for Solar Economy
Christian Breyer is Professor for Solar Economy at LUT University, Finland. His major expertise is the integrated research of technological and economic characteristics of renewable energy systems specialising in energy system modeling for 100% renewable energy, on a local but also global scale. His team published the most studies on 100% renewable energy systems for countries or major regions globally. Energy system transition studies are carried out in full hourly and high geo-spatial resolution. Publications cover integrated sector analyses with power, heat, transport, desalination, industry and negative CO2 emission options. Power-to-X investigations is a core research field for his team. He published more than 300 scientific papers, thereof more than 100 in scientific journals. He worked previously for Reiner Lemoine Institut, Berlin, and Q-Cells (now: Hanwha Q Cells). He is member of ETIP PV, IEA-PVPS, scientific committee of the EU PVSEC and IRES, scientific advisory board of CO2 Value Europe, academic council of Global Alliance Powerfuels, chairman for renewable energy at the Energy Watch Group, reviewer for the IPCC and a co-founder of the Desertec Foundation. His academic background is general business, physics and energy systems engineering and a PhD in electrical engineering. He communicates in Twitter @ChristianOnRE.