Fintan Slye, head of the new grid operator Neso, is aware that critics are sceptical about achieving ‘clean power by 2030’. But with tough decisions, he says, it can be done
www.theguardian.com
So it turns out they are now defining the zero carbon electricity system as "5% carbon".
"One thing these routes will not deliver is the “
zero carbon electricity system” promised by the Labour party before the election – at least, not all of the time. Since coming to power, ministers have made subtle tweaks to the rhetoric, choosing to talk about “clean power” by the end of the decade. This is arguably a more flexible target.
“There’s no established definition of clean power,” says Slye. “So what does it realistically mean? One of the key pieces of work from the Committee on Climate Change found that the cost [of decarbonisation] really begins to escalate when you reach those last percentage points towards 100% clean power.
“So at the moment, the working definition that we’re using for this analysis is to reach 95% clean power. That means that, by 2030, 95% of the generation in Great Britain over the period of a year will be from clean power sources. And that means that the remaining 5% will come from unabated gas. That’s our definition.”
