Nothing but renewables

摘要

Could the UK's power supply become 100 per cent renewable? Definitely. The UK could base its power supplies primarily on solar panels and wind turbines - the cheapest technologies for renewable-energy generation. But of course the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow, so those sources would have to be balanced with some backup. One backup option would be biomass that is used to produce biomethane, which can be stored, sent into the gas grid or burned to generate electricity on demand. Aren't solar cells still too inefficient? The important issue isn't efficiency so much: the main thing is the cost per kilowatt generated. Solar panels are so cheap now that their efficiency has become less important. There are so many rooftops in the UK and Germany that we could power our countries many times over if we installed solar panels on every single rooftop.