UK to struggle to meet green energy targets

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - Britain could struggle to hit its target of getting 15 percent of its energy from renewable resources within the next decade, according to a UK government report submitted to the European Union.

Interim targets for the next six years will cause even greater problems, causing Britain to fall behind its EU neighbors.

The European Union's executive has been collating the energy forecasts of its 27 member nations to see if more needs to be done to cut climate-warming emissions.

Most have now replied saying they will hit their targets or over-achieve.

Britain submitted its forecast late on Monday, saying it was on track for its 15 percent goal if energy consumption remained at low or moderate levels.

Energy demand has fallen as the recession squeezed industrial output. Britain's greenhouse gas emissions in 2008 fell two percent to 628.3 million tonnes from 636.6 million in 2007, according to final figures published separately by the Department of Energy and Climate Change on Tuesday.

Unless consumption remains limited, the UK could fail to hit any of its interim renewables targets for the next six years.

"Good progress is being made toward meeting our 2020 targets (...) Under low and central demand assumptions we are confident of meeting our long term target," a spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said on Tuesday.

The report to the EU Commission warned that if energy demand was higher, i.e. around the central or high projection, the government was less confident about achieving its first three interim targets.

A link to the report can be accessed here: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform/forecast_documents_en.htm

TARGETS

Britain has set interim targets to achieve 4 percent of renewables in the energy mix in 2011-12, 5.4 percent in 2013-14, 7.5 percent in 2015-16 and 10.2 percent in 2017-18.

A report to the UK government last year suggested that Britain's emissions cuts and renewable energy targets are too optimistic by decades.

Britain has launched programmes that include building tens of thousands of wind turbines in the sea to source about a third of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020 or developing carbon capture and storage technology.

Tuesday's document said Britain is open to using joint projects with other member states to make up any potential shortfall in its final renewable energy target.

"From the outset we are open to joint projects for renewable electricity where the energy is physically imported into, and consumed in the UK," it said, outlining several criteria.

For example, given the potential for offshore wind generation in the North Sea, the government could consider joint projects.

In contrast to the UK, Portugal says it can probably go beyond its 31 percent target over the next decade, and may well be able to sell the excess green energy to help other EU states reach their goals.

Spain envisages getting 22.7 percent of its energy from renewable sources in 2020, ahead of its 20 percent target.

(Reporting by Pete Harrison and Nina Chestney, editing by Anthony Barker)