The 2030 Decarbonisation Challenge Facing the UK Electricity System

The 2030 Decarbonisation challenge facing the UK Electricity System
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The 2030 Decarbonisation challenge facing the UK Electricity System
The global energy mix is embracing the use of renewable energy. Various organizations in the UK are working to decarbonize the economy. The UK aims to address the problem of climate change by fostering the achievement of net-zero carbon emissions. Climate change is a threat to humankind globally. By 2050, the UK looks towards having a zero-carbon economy. The emergence of new technologies and ecosystems is attributed to the global energy transformation process. The growth of Renewable energy, the rise of new carbon markets, efficient energy enhancement, and the development of sustainable energy carriers are among the sustainable developments engineered to meet the decarbonization challenge. Decarbonization in the economy is set to be achieved through increasing renewable energy consumption, enhancing electrification, and creating energy efficiency. These measures and developments bear economic and engineering challenges. Although decarbonization is beneficial, it will lead to perplexing challenges in the engineering and economic spheres. Shifting wide decarbonisation from 80 percent to 100 percent affects technological transformation and economic development. The UK had set its 2050 decarbonization target of 80 percent, but they recently shifted their target to 100 percent. This move is bound to have various implications on the electricity sector. Attaining full decarbonization in the economy requires intense effort and measures to be used. The paper evaluates the decarbonization levels and the impact of changing targets to attaining full decarbonization on the electricity sector by 2030.
Economic Challenges
Decarbonization challenge targets that the UK aims to achieve in 2050 have various economic implications in the UK before and after 2030. The effects of shifting the decarbonization targets from 80% to 100% are felt in the transport, electricity, and industrial sectors. Based on the electricity sector, the change of targets is bound to affect. Some of the effects likely to be felt on the electricity sector in the UK up to 2030 are discussed below.
* Increase in demand for renewable capacity
Installation of renewable capacity is essential for achieving decarbonization in the economy. Building the capacity for renewable sources and technologies such as geothermal, biomass, and hydropower will increase the cost of energy production, posing challenges to the sector (Galvin et al., 2021, 427). Up to 2030, the UK will be in the process of shifting energy generation to renewable options. Using simply capacity as a measure of decarbonization ignores the varied capacity components of fossil fuel and renewable sources. When it comes to generating GWh, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind produce significantly less electricity compared to fossil fuels. Fossil energy plants, for example, are not affected by the weather, unlike solar and wind energy. Because of this, a larger amount of renewable potential does not necessarily mean a larger amount of fossil-fuel-free power (Galvin et al., 2021, ...