Development of Community Led Renewable Energy Projects
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Development of Community Led Renewable Energy Projects
Jose A. Mawyin1, Anna Krzywoszynska2, Alastair Buckley1, Nicky Gregson2, Matt Watson1, Helen Holmes1, Prue Chiles1 and David Lidzey. 1 University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom. 2 Durham University, The Palatine Centre, Durham University, Stockton Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom. ABSTRACT The United Kingdom aims to decarbonize its national electricity generation in order to transition to a low carbon economy. Solar, wind, hydro and thermal energy conversion are renewable alternatives to fossil fuels and are currently being explored that may form part of the future generation mix of the country. How does materials scientist's work addressing energy research challenges for solar and storage (for example) translate into the adoption of new technology? How appropriate are the technology usage visions of the scientists? How can technology users better inform the materials science motivations? This report will focus on how a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Universities of Sheffield and University of Durham, community members and industry representatives are jointly developing renewable energy projects to try to answer these and other questions. The history of the project will be presented as well as the methodology used to collaboratively engage the community participants. This work is supported by a grant provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the United Kingdom. INTRODUCTION The Climate Change Act was introduced in 2008 by the UK Parliament with the goal to reduce the UK's greenhouse gas emissions by 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Higher levels of energy efficiency and renewable energy conversion (REC) will be needed to reach these established goals. Renewable energy generation will be distributed and will range from large scale generation plants to installations sized to satisfy the energy demand needs of a household. The acceptance of communities of these goal throughout the UK will be essential to reach these gas emissions reduction targets. Greater generation of energy though renewables sources has been incentivized through financial instruments like Renewable Obligations (RO) and Feed in Tariffs (FITs) created to “provide greater market confidence about future deployment levels, helping to stimulate supply chain development” [1]. RO's were set up so that an increasing percentage of the electricity supplied by UK electricity providers comes from renewable sources while FiT's were designed to support small scale generation. These schemes have been successful in increasing the deployment of renewable energy conversion in the UK from 41 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2008 to 64 TWh in 2012 with the goal of reaching 216-225 TWh or 15% of the energy demand by 2020 [2]. This change in energy conversion is a step towards the goal of decarbonization but the longterm repercussions have not been fully explored. Germany and Spain, with similar financial incentives for renewable generation
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