Two British technology stalwarts, IQE and XP Power, have joined forces to warn that almost a third of all renewable electricity generated in the UK is wasted. The companies have estimated that the process of inverting alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC) leads to 7,600GWh of electricity being lost.
Last year the UK produced 26,000GWh of electricity from renewable sources and has ambitions of generating 15 percent of the nation’s entire electricity demand from renewable sources by 2020.
Drew Nelson, Chief Executive of IQE, believes that they key to meeting stringent emissions targets in a cost-effective manner is to focus on energy efficiency. Speaking to the Financial Times, Nelson said: “The country’s lack of energy efficiency, to me it’s completely bonkers. It has a massive impact on the UK’s national power strategy.”
Nelson continued: “Instead of worrying about costly forms of energy generation, we should be focusing on energy efficiency. We’re pouring money down the drain here.”
Speaking at the Clean Energy Ministerial conference in London, Prime Minister, David Cameron reiterated his commitment to tackling energy efficiency across the UK: “We are putting energy efficiency where it should be, at the heart of our energy policy – including by introducing our flagship Green Deal programme.”
In an attempt to drive the adoption of energy efficiency measures, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has linked higher solar feed-in tariff rates to properties that achieve an Energy Performance Certificate rated D or above. Although the solar industry has largely recognised the need to address basic energy efficiency measures before installing microgeneration measures, industry has questioned why solar PV has been singled out as the only FiT technology to become linked to energy efficiency.
