Speaking at an Energy Policy event today in Oxford, Helm, professor of
energy policy at the University of Oxford, said the government subsidies
for renewable technology should be cut in the near future, and the funds
put into research and development (R&D) for upcoming technologies.
Transferring the funding renewables currently receives into R&D of future
technologies is the best way to reduce energy costs and meet the 2050
carbon targets, according to Helm.
“We have to have future
technologies,” he said, “If you spend all the money on offshore wind,
there’s not a lot left for R&D – that is where the hope lies.”
“This implies curtailing the subsidies on renewables very quickly and
sticking to the notion that if they are not competitive by 2020, tough,” he
added.
Failure to do so, Helm said, would result in the UK
following policies, which “reduce our competitiveness, reduce our security,
increase our consumption of carbon and increase our bills”.
Another speaker added that the development of carbon capture and storage
(CCS) is dependent on funding to get demonstration projects up and running,
which in turn will lead to cost reductions.
Once first projects
are up and running – at an estimated cost of £150/MWh – it is thought the
costs of CCS will fall to about £94/MWh with efficiency savings and costs
reductions coming from research and development schemes.