Homeowners can help UK hit renewable goals

Britain could meet its renewable energy goals without punishing the power sector by improved support for homeowners wanting to help out, the director of Centrica-owned British Gas New Energy said.

The EU's executive Commission has proposed Britain should get 15 per cent of all its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Power generators are expected to have to meet even higher targets to achieve the 2020 goal.

Because of the transport sector's addiction to fossil fuels, many analysts believe it will be hard for Britain to meet the renewables target unless there is a rapid and widespread expansion of renewable technologies in homes across the country.

But while microgeneration has flourished in many other parts of Europe, with householders paid well to supply any extra energy they generate back on to the grid, Britain's complex support systems have stunted potential growth.

"Right now we have a patchwork of small support mechanisms and nothing that's big enough and easy enough to access," Gearoid Lane said in an interview at the Low Carbon World conference in London.