Will 2018 Be the Greenest Year Ever?
2017 was the greenest year ever for electricity generation in the UK, and 13 clean records were broken too, including greenest summer ever, lowest amount of carbon produced by electricity production and most wind power produced in a day.
Whilst 2017 was the greenest year on record so far, this was only for electricity generation, so we could do a lot better.
Here are some of the ways we could be greener in 2018:
The government’s Energy Consumption in the UK report showed that 40% of the total energy we used was for transport. To make 2018 a greener year, the UK will need to shift away from diesel and petrol to electric cars, as long as we produce electricity to power these cars from renewable sources.
Electric cars are propelled by one or more electric motors, using energy stored in rechargeable batteries. The popularity of electric cars in the UK has shot up over the last few years, with more than 125,000 plug-in vehicles on the road, compared to just 3,500 in 2013. The huge increase in popularity of electric cars shows a bright future ahead for the electric car, with the UK set to make electric cars a more viable option in 2020.
Renewable heating technology
The second biggest portion of total energy used is domestic energy, at 29%. Heating accounts for around 80% of domestic energy use – for space and water heating. Heating energy is mainly generated from burning natural gas, so to make 2018 even better, a focus on renewable heating technology is indeed.
Renewable heat technologies include renewable biofuels, solar heating, geothermal heating, heat pumps and heat exchangers to recover lost heat. There are various ways to generate heat for your home with low-carbon, renewable technologies such as biomass, ground source heat pumps, air source heat pumps, solar water heating and thermal stores.
The fall in cost for solar and wind means that we will see more development of these technologies in 2018 and beyond. Oil giants, including the likes of BP and Shell, are making increasing commitments to renewable energy, which is a sure sign that renewable energy will be the future.
The challenge of renewable energy is the intermittency; we can’t control when the sun shines, or when the wind blows. So, with that in mind, we only have two options: getting people to change their patterns and use electricity when it’s available or install energy storage so that we can store excess electricity and use it when we need it.