The UK is moving into a low carbon epoch with climate change and security at the heart of energy policy. In order to fulfil the ambitious targets set by the Climate Change Act, the energy sector must look at its sources and the infrastructure that may need to be built to provide this energy.
As well as providing low carbon forms of energy, the sector must continue to focus on price and sustainability. This move into a new era of energy policy will require both demand management capability as well as secure and sustainable supply.
Commercial wind turbines are being manufactured and installed world-wide by all the main industrialised countries as a part of an international drive to both reduce atmospheric pollution, which causes climate change, and in consideration of the depletion of oil & gas stocks and their increasing cost.
Current main support mechanism is the Renewables Obligation (RO), requiring electricity generators to source an increasing percentage of the UK's total electricity supply from renewables or pay an equivalent value which is re-cycled to renewable providers.
A great deal of infrastructure is required to build, supply and operate offshore wind faciltites. All along the supply chain, infrastructure such as ports, installation vessels, turbines and subsea structures are required to deliver and maintain the energy supply.
Both wave and tidal generated energy could contribute to the UK's energy portfolio by 2050. There is still a great deal of research to be done on these types of technology; however, similar infrastructure to that required for offshore wind energy could be utilised, resulting in some synthesis between the industries. If both of these industries are to prove successful then there will have to be appropriate grid infrastructure in place to harness and safely deliver the energy produced.
The transition from a carbon intensive to a low carbon economy is a slow process. Much of the UKs' energy consumption still relies on fossil fuels such as coal and gas, so we cannot just stop using these sources of energy. In order to reduce the impact of the carbon emitted from these fuels it is possible to capture the carbon at source and transfer it to storage facilities. These storage facilities have to be stable and sealed, but they can be provide a useful method for reducing the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere, whilst we move towards a low carbon future.