October 8, in the UK a new road-map of the development of solar energy industry was published. The paper raised the question about the effectiveness of this segment of renewable energy in the struggle to reduce emissions of CO ₂.

Two main issues identified in the road-map prepared by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) can be formulated as follows: how effectively allows the solar energy industry to influence the process of reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, and that Britain should be taken to increase by 2020 the total installed solar power plants up to 22 GW?

Minister of Energy of the Island State Greg Barker submitted a report that is the part of a two-stage strategy for planning the future of solar energy in the country. The keynote speech was delivered at the official opening of the conference of Solar Energy UK 2013in the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. The Department of Energy intends to re-examine the effect of reducing the costs of further development of the industry. In addition, while carefully but into question the possibility of achieving the declared purposes previously is posed. But this is not the most interesting thing in the promulgated road-map. The document contains the concerns about the effectiveness of solar energy when it comes to the issue of reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. As proof of the theory, two studies are given which suggest that the true lifetime emissions of CO ₂, associated with the solar sector (along the entire chain, from extraction of silicon) is much higher than, for example, emissions from wind power.

This factor may force the UK authorities to revise the rapid development of solar energy. Another argument against an extensive growth is the energy company National Grid’s findings positing that the addition of more than 10 GW of new solar capacity can significantly complicate the work of the network.

During the conference, Solar Energy UK 2013 Minister Barker noted that the roadmap provides for the installation of photovoltaic systems for the most part within the settlements: in parking lots, warehouses, supermarkets’ roofs. Currently, most of the objects in the solar energy sector is deployed in the southwest of Britain with a large accumulation in the most densely populated areas of Scotland and Wales. At the same time post-industrial Midlands and Northern England are among the laggards. The authorities believe that these areas should become a platform for the implementation of solar projects in the foreseeable future.

Source: greenevolution.ru