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Energy transition faces supply crunch
2/3/2022
6 min read
Feature
As the energy transition reshapes international trading relations, reliable future energy supply remains an imponderable, reports Maria Kielmas from the first day of International Energy Week 2022.*
On opening the first virtual session of the International Energy Week conference, Energy Institute President Steve Holliday observed that after last year’s COP26 conference in Glasgow he was left with a glass half full, rather than half empty. The strength of the case for action on climate change across governments, businesses and societies is here to stay, and the scientific consensus on the issue is becoming ever firmer.
In addition, economic and financial drivers are ‘turning on their head’, Holliday added. The costs of onshore wind are half what they were a decade ago, while offshore wind costs have fallen by a third. Engineering achievements underway have developed offshore North Sea wind turbines with power generation capacities of 1.2–1.3 GW, compared with capacities of just 0.5 MW when the first Danish offshore wind turbines came online in 1991.
This trend makes renewables the solution to British energy supply in the medium to long term, noted UK Energy Minister Greg Hands. ‘We’re obviously susceptible to energy prices’ he added, but the security of supply is good. Half of UK gas demand is supplied from domestic production, a further one third is imported from Norway, while only 2–3% of UK demand is supplied from Russia.