Thursday 18 October 2018

New energy tech ‘could get UK halfway to 2030 emissions targets’

New energy technology could meet more than half of the 2030 target to reduce carbon emissions by 20% across the healthcare, industry and hospitality sectors.

That's the prediction made in a new report from Centrica, which suggests distributed energy measures such as battery storage, onsite generation and energy efficiency could deliver an 11% saving across the sectors, which together represent more than a quarter of total emissions.

It estimates deploying such solutions in only half of organisations could achieve annual savings of nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, culminating in a total of 137 million tonnes by 2030.

The report also calls for a full assessment of the business and public sectors to see where the main opportunities to implement distributed energy technologies lie.

It suggests four main steps businesses should focus on - increasing visibility of their energy usage, balancing energy sources with diverse approaches, reducing risk by assessing possible disruptions to supply and linking energy and business plans in a formal strategy.

Jorge Pikunic, Managing Director of Centrica Business Solutions, said: "The good news is that business and the public sector can play a central role over the next decade in our path to decarbonisation.

"This report shows how by adopting distributed energy technologies, we can significantly reduce emissions and make a positive impact to the economy at the same time."