Recent policy changes have put a brake on continued large-scale deployment of many renewable energy technologies, particularly in England. Savills Energy and Planning teams, having worked closely with the wind and solar industries particularly, have seen the effects of the changes close up. The changes have happened now, so what of the future?

The basic UK electricity system comprises largely of older power stations, transmission and distribution systems. Imperatives for retirement of the older generation fleet include safety for nuclear stations, clean air, and global warming for coal burners. Savills is working closely on new transmission lines and on gas power stations, but we believe to conclude that the replacement of one set of large-scale centralised generators (nuclear and coal) with another (gas and new nuclear) will alone solve the problems is to miss the opportunities offered by other significant changes now well under way.

Apart from their energy sources, renewables differ from traditional generators in their scale and location. They ‘plug in’ to the grid via its 'capillaries' rather than its 'main arteries'. Much solar power is generated on rooftops and connects with the grid at the most capillary of levels, the house. Renewables have therefore changed grid operations, a change which opens the possibility of other technical innovations. For example, Tesla, the electric car maker, is marketing a wall-mounted household scale battery which can store solar power for nighttime use.

Being smaller and more local, renewables can enable sites to generate their own power. Savills has already assisted several such sites, including Europe’s largest floating solar array at a water treatment works reservoir near Manchester.

Intermittent electricity from renewables exacerbates decades-old problems managing daily and seasonal variations in demand. But as the requirements placed on the transmission and distribution of power are changing, the grid itself is adapting. Companies are developing storage technologies at grid scale using new battery systems or established methods such as 'pumped storage' hydro. With more power on the system on windy or sunny days, the usefulness of storage will increase.

Heating, largely by gas, is currently responsible for a third of the UK’s carbon emissions and changes are also likely for this sector. Notwithstanding today's low fuel prices, the UK relies on gas imports, and may still even with shale gas. Low prices can only increase, so as well as a current carbon problem, a price shock may occur.

Part of the answer, based on low carbon electricity and increasingly smart use of storage, is to electrify heat. Another solution already used widely in northern Europe is district heating where hot water or steam is pumped between buildings. Such heat is potentially available in abundance as by-products from, for example, waste treatment, sewage works and power stations. Alternatively, it can be produced with low-carbon footprint by ‘combined heat and power’ installations such as gas-fuelled electricity generators embedded in urban areas.

Savills already manages five distributed energy systems and is advising on many more.

Energy storage and heat networks – and electric cars – would also tackle poor urban air quality, perhaps one of this decade’s greatest challenges for London.

At the recent Paris climate conference (COP21) the UK recommitted to fighting climate change. New policies commit hundreds of millions of pounds for heat systems, including renewable heat, and increased innovation funding for technologies to deliver reliable energy affordably and cleanly.

Further large-scale deployment of much renewable energy is on pause, pending low or no subsidy business models. Savills believes increased interest in heat and in direct supply renewable power backed up by storage will shape the types of projects promoted in the future.

Further information

More details from Savills Energy & Infrastructure