Almost half of people think that investing in more renewable power is the top priority to secure the UK’s energy supplies, a poll suggests.
The survey of 2,065 people found 48 per cent put it at the top of the list of priorities for ensuring energy security, compared to just 13 per cent who said fracking for shale gas was the most important thing to focus on, and two per cent who wanted more energy imports as top priority.
Renewables came out as the top priority for voters across four political parties, Tory, Labour, Lib Dem and Ukip, the ComRes poll for industry body RenewableUK found.
The survey also found that more than half (53 per cent) of those quizzed listed developing a secure supply of energy for the UK in the top five issues that were most important for the Government to address.
Just five per cent thought reducing the number of future onshore wind farms was one of the top issues the Government should tackle.
RenewableUK chief executive Maria McCaffery said: “This poll shows that the public want to tackle our energy security crisis by investing in renewables like wind, wave and tidal power and offsetting the need to import volatile and dirty fossil fuels from insecure parts of the world.”
The support for renewables comes as the Government unveiled the amount of money that renewable generators could compete for under the new system of subsidies this year, with the costs going onto consumer bills.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) said £200 million would be available for renewable projects, which they would have to bid for in a competitive auction system.
But the industry criticised the plans, which put just £50 million into a pot for established – and cheaper – technologies such as onshore wind farms and solar power, but put £155 million into less-established technologies such as offshore wind, which are much more expensive.
There are also concerns that much of the budget for the scheme up to 2020 has already been awarded, without competition, to five offshore wind farms and three biomass schemes, with contracts worth £16.6 billion according to the National Audit Office.
After this year, some £1 billion will be available up to 2020/2021 for renewables projects and technology on fossil fuel plants to capture their carbon emissions, Decc said.
Energy Secretary Ed Davey said: “These projects will create green jobs and green growth, reduce our reliance on foreign-controlled volatile energy markets and make sure billpayers get the best possible deal.
“We’re building a secure, low-carbon electricity system that will be the powerhouse of the British economy, supporting up to 250,000 jobs by 2020.”