Renewable concerns
Jim Holder’s Inside Information column of 4 August sets out how National Grid believes it can cope with the shift to electrification. The energy generation sector has made significant progress towards net zero, but that progress appears to be stalling and isn’t keeping pace with the rapid acceleration in electrified vehicle uptake.
Renewable sources are increasingly important in UK power generation (a record 42.9% in 2020), but fossil fuels were still responsible for almost as much (41%), and the pace of investment is slowing just when EVS are rising. In the first quarter of 2021, renewable power generation stood at 34.7TWH, a 16% year-on-year decrease, with government figures showing that growth in renewable capacity has slowed since the start of 2020. Plug-in vehicle registrations, meanwhile, rose 140% in 2020 and 82% in the first quarter of this year.
While smart chargers could ensure that we keep our lights on and delay expensive – but ultimately necessary – grid reinforcements, not every EV user has the luxury of one at home. At least one in three households has no driveway or garage and still more have no designated off-street parking. These EV drivers must rely on destination or on-street charging, the provision of which is inadequate and failing to keep pace with EV uptake, is pricier and, as many find out, not as reliable as ‘filling up’.
The vehicle sector is introducing ever more electrified models and must ensure every new car and van is zero-emissions by 2035. But the uncomfortable truth is our power is expected to be 75-90% sourced from renewables only by 2050. Unless this is brought forward, drivers could for at least 15 years be fuelling their green cars with brown electricity.
While grid mix varies by country, many of our major competitors – markets with which we are fighting for investment in EV and battery production – are accelerating faster. Spain, Germany, Portugal and Sweden all had higher renewables content in 2019; the global leader in EV take-up, Norway, is already there.
The UK wants to be the world leader in achieving net zero. The automotive industry will shoulder a significant part of that burden. But we need other sectors to help by going further and faster and matching our decarbonisation deadline of 2035.
Mike Hawes
SMMT chief executive