CGTN Europe interviewed Frankie Mayo, Senior Energy Analyst at Ember
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00:00Welcome back. Wind turbines have overtaken gas as Britain's biggest source of electricity for a whole year for the first time.
00:10Wind accounted for 29% of the nation's electricity last year, while gas fell to around a quarter.
00:17And all this comes as the UK government pushes ahead with plans to decarbonise the nation's electricity system by 2030.
00:25Frankie Mayo is a senior analyst at Energy Think Tank, EMBA. Great to have you on Global Business Europe.
00:31Now, why is wind power becoming more important?
00:37Great to be here. Wind power is so important because of its cost savings and its energy security benefits.
00:45So renewables in the UK have helped to cut its reliance on gas power, meaning less expensive fossil fuels in the energy mix.
00:53And the gas has been the largest source of power in the UK for about a decade, but that's all changing now.
00:59The UK government's push to decarbonise the nation's electricity system by 2030 will mean stopping using the UK's 32 main gas-fired power stations.
01:11What are the trade-offs here? I'm thinking jobs, I'm thinking costs.
01:16Yeah. So just to be clear, the government's 2030 target is for a clean power system, which means reducing that role of expensive gas down to below 5%.
01:26So there will still be a small backup role for a reserve of gas power plants, but they'll be contributing far less to emissions and therefore to costs.
01:38At the end of last year, the new National Electricity Systems Operator reported that this could be achieved by 2030 without a rise in consumer costs.
01:48But more important than a one-off reduction, this is about longer-term protection from future price spikes like the UK has seen in recent years.
01:58Well, you mentioned price spikes, but something else that we can't predict, of course, is the weather.
02:04It's something that we can't count on. In early November, for example, Britain's wind generation plunged to virtually zero.
02:11I mean, does wind really offer that energy security you're talking about?
02:17Yeah, of course, every power source has its trade-offs.
02:21In terms of energy security, like you asked, the issue of relying too much on international gas markets has been very evident in the UK for the last few years.
02:30But, of course, we know solar generates more in the summer, wind power generates more in the winter.
02:35So in that respect, they're a good match for each other.
02:37But, of course, small periods of low wind speeds are never going to go away.
02:42So it's important to build a flexible energy system able to deal with British weather.
02:48So that means more energy storage. It means better connectivity in the UK as well as connecting with Europe and more responsive demand.
02:57The UK is positioning itself as a bit of a leader in this space.
03:02And there's this proposal to classify wind turbines and solar farms as nationally significant infrastructure projects.
03:09So that's going to allow them to be treated with the same sort of importance as airports and power plants.
03:15What's your take on that?
03:18Planning policy has been identified as one of the key barriers to renewables.
03:22So it's positive that this is being looked at.
03:25But really, this is a return to normal planning procedures for energy projects.
03:30Offshore wind, solar at a certain level have already been under this national process.
03:36Onshore wind was effectively banned in the UK up until this planning rule was revoked.
03:42So there's always a balance needed.
03:44But real, real speed is required for these new wind and solar projects if targets are to be met.
03:50So getting a consistent and a rational planning approach is certainly critical for that.
03:56Frankie Mayo at Ember. Thank you very much.