Transcript Stephen Morgan: renewables overview (MS PowerPoint)

RENEWABLE ENERGY IN THE
LEGAL AND POLICY CONTEXT
Stephen Morgan
Landmark Chambers
September 2009
TOPICS COVERED
(1)
WHY THE INTEREST IN RENEWABLES?
(2)
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES:
- what you would expect
- what might surprise you
- the future
(3)
DELIVERY: THE POLICY APPROACH
(4)
DELIVERY: THE LEGAL APPROACH
1.
MOTIVATIONS
• Renewable energy as part
of the wider energy debate
• Why we are discussing
energy:
>Fossil fuels are a finite
resource
>Security of energy
supply
>Climate change
THE REALITY
• RE may be in some respects “environmentally friendly” AND
they may be urgently needed
• However in addition to being technically and economically
viable still need planning permission & other consents
• Planning system has been overhauled and new legislation
enacted: new system of Development Consent for Nationally
Significant Infrastructure Projects
• Objections: local opposition & position of NE and the EA. No
special treatment for RE – should there be?
2.
TYPES OF RENEWABLE ENERGY
Renewable
energy is energy
generated from
natural resources
such as sunlight,
wind, rain, tides,
geothermal
heat—which are
renewable
(naturally
replenished).
RENEWABLE AND NOT RENEWABLE: :
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE?
• Drax Power Station is Europe's
largest coal-fired power station and
has the world's largest FGD
installation. The 400MW power
station has six large boilers and
generates one tenth of Britain's
total energy demand.
•
Arable Biomass Renewable
Energy Power Station, North
Yorkshire – Europe’s First
Commercial Wood-Fuelled Power
Station: uses willow grown on
farmland across the north to
generate gas to drive the stations
electricity-producing turbines.
THE FUTURE: THE ENERGY GAP
• Nuclear: James Lovelock’s thesis. Even if a partial solution, it
is not a panacea
• The Answer: Renewables?
• Technological advances: this has meant that RE
developments are entering the mainstream. But still
substantial hurdles: Severn Project (tidal range): limits on
solar given the climate; economics
• Future developments: not just in the existing forms but
possibly developments such as osmosis?
The Norwegian company Statkraft is building
the world’s first facility for osmotic power generation.
Statkraft says a full-scale commercial osmotic power
plant could be ready by 2015
Osmotic power is based on the natural process of osmosis.
In an osmotic power plant, seawater and fresh water are
separated by a membrane. The seawater draws the fresh
water through the membrane, thereby increasing the
pressure on the seawater side. The increased pressure is
used to produce power.
3. DELIVERY: PLANNING POLICY
• PPS1 Supplement:
Critical document
produced in December
2007, PPS1
Supplement:
– Precedence
– Tackling climate
change is a key
Government priority
for the planning
system.
•
•
PPS22:
Benefits of RE
t
to be given
sginifacnt significant
weight
weight
PPS1 SUPPLEMENT APPROACH
• Renewable and low-carbon energy
Renewable energy covers those energy flows that occur
naturally and repeatedly in the environment – from the wind,
the fall of water, the movement of the oceans, from the sun
and also from biomass. Low-carbon technologies are those
that can help reduce carbon emissions.
• Renewable and/or low-carbon energy supplies include, but
not exclusively, those from biomass and energy crops;
CHP/CCHP (and micro-CHP); waste heat that would
otherwise be generated directly or indirectly from fossil fuel;
energy-from-waste; ground source heating and cooling;
hydro; solar thermal and photovoltaic generation; wind
generation.
PPS SUPPLEMENT: PARA 25
• In selecting sites for development LPAs should have
regard to:
The extent to which existing or planned
opportunities for decentralised and
renewable or low-carbon energy could
contribute to the energy supply of
development
ENERGY FROM WASTE: THE WASTE
POLICY DIMENSION
• WASTE STRATEGY FOR ENGLAND 2007:
The main elements of the new strategy are to:
incentivise efforts to reduce, re-use, recycle waste and
recover energy from waste;
This reflects the WASTE HIERARCHY:
• Waste prevention
• Re-use
• Recycle
• Energy recovery
• Disposal
WSE AND ENERGY FROM WASTE
• Incinerators have been found to accord with WSE and
PPS 1 Climate Change Supplement
• Objectors (including FoE) rely upon encouragement in
WSE for ANAEROBIC DIGESTION:
Anaerobic digestion is a series of processes in which microorganisms break down
biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen and is widely used to treat wastewater.[1] As part
of an integrated waste management system, anaerobic digestion reduces the emission of landfill
gas into the atmosphere. Anaerobic digestion is widely used as a renewable energy source
because the process produces a methane and carbon dioxide rich biogas suitable for energy
production helping replace fossil fuels. Also, the nutrient-rich digestate can be used as fertiliser.
Using the EU Regulation 850/2004 on Persistent Organic
Pollutants (POPS) to support this
• However WSE makes it clear that it does not generally
think it appropriate to express a preference for one
technology over another (para. 27).
4.
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
• Statutory requirement in the PA 2008 (ss. 181 & 182) to
include in their development plans policies designed to secure
that development in their area contributes to mitigating and
adapting to climate change
• Changes to the planning system to facilitate major
infrastructure projects: the IPC (Planning Act 2008)
• ENVIROMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
• STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT: to ensure
that environmental considerations are taken into account in
evolution of the plan or programme – can lead to legal
challenge Seaport Investment Limited [2007] NIQB 62
• HABITATS DIRECTIVE/BIRDS DIRECTIVE: re. SPAs and
SACs – Appropriate Assessment
EUROPEAN DIMENSION
• Tension between UK policy and EU re. Incineration:
energy from waste considered by UK policy as recovery
and not disposal. Incinerators approved on basis of
contribution to objectives of PPS1 Supplement
• Revised Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC)– See
Annex II which includes incineration of municipal solid
waste as a Recovery Operation where the energy
efficiency equals or exceeds a specified figure.
• Directive on Energy from Renewable Sources – includes
biomass (the biodegradable element)
RENEWABLES OBLIGATION
CERTIFICATES
• The Renewables Obligation Order came into effect in April 2002
• places an obligation on licensed electricity suppliers to source an
increasing proportion of electricity from renewable sources.
• Suppliers meet their obligations by presenting sufficient Renewables
Obligation Certificates (ROCs). Where suppliers do not have
sufficient ROCs to meet their obligations, they must pay an
equivalent amount into a fund, the proceeds of which are paid back
on a pro-rated basis to those suppliers that have presented
ROCs. The Government intends that suppliers will be subject to a
renewables obligation until 31 March 2027.
References
• Sustainable Energy – without the hot air by David JC MacKay
• The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock
• Renewable Energy Proposals: Hurdles to Delivery in the Future by
David Forsdick of landmark Chambers
http://www.landmarkchambers.co.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/52
866/5._Renewable_Energy_Proposals.pdf
• John Litton – Landmark Chambers
http://www.landmarkchambers.co.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/52
859/3._Planning_and_Climate_Change.pdf
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