Renewable Energy Progress Report: 2011 annual survey
Preparing the ground
We support decision makers, creating the right conditions for investment
Renewable electricity and heat projects in south west England
Regen SW's Renewable Energy Progress Report provides a yearly update on the deployment of renewables across the south west. With 3,370 new projects installed in 2010/2011, an additional 43.76 MW have been added to the renewable energy capacity for the south west, bringing the total up to 289.56 MW.
The 2011 survey recorded a dramatic increase in solar PV installations, driven by the introduction of Feed-in Tariffs. These made up over 97 per cent of the 2451 new renewable electricity projects captured in the survey. However, the commissioning of a new 2.4 MW onshore wind farm alongside the repowering of two existing wind farms in Cornwall means there has also been significant growth in large-scale schemes installed this year.
The central message from the report is that where there is both a clear consistent policy framework, and active support to tackle barriers - renewable energy has huge potential for investment and growth. By contrast, the knock to the confidence of the renewable energy sector - resulting from the early review of the Feed-in Tariffs and delays in the Renewable Heat Incentive - shows what happens when that long-term policy framework is undermined.
The total renewable electricity capacity in the south west is now just over 200 MW, following an increase of 22.773 MW (12.7 per cent) in 2010/2011. There has been a increase in the rate at which projects are installed, with 2,451 new renewable electricity installations recorded in the 2010/2011, compaired to only 546 in the previous year. Meanwhile the growth of installed capacity has continued at a steady rate, where the greater number of installations has not resulted in higher levels of capacity due to the small-scale nature of the majority of installations – only eight renewable electricity projects were larger than 50 kWs.
The growth in the number of installations has largely been driven by the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff scheme.
South west installed renewable electricity capacity by local area (January 2011)
The increase in renewable heat projects has stayed constant in comparison to previous years. During the period 2010/2011 an additional 20.99 MW of renewable heat have been installed, bringing the total capacity in the south west to 89.34 MW. Once again biomass has contributed the majority of capacity increase during 2010/2011 – from 124 biomass installations a net capacity of 16.81 MW has been added.
South west installed renewable heat capacity by local area January (2011)
Despite both offshore and marine renewables being at early stages of development, with no generating projects yet installed, it has been a milestone year for progress in these exciting sectors. In January 2010 the government announced the extension of offshore wind across the UK including two zones in the south west. Both the 1.5 and 0.9 GW sites are currently undertaking detailed planning work with construction expected to commence between 2015 and 2018.
Cornwall now boasts the largest wave energy demonstration site in the world following the construction and commissioning of the Wave Hub during 2010. Capable of supporting up to 20 MW of capacity, the Wave Hub already has a number of wave energy developers in negotiation to use the facility, including Ocean Power Technologies, OWEL and Fred Olsen.
Whilst 2010/2011 was a record year for renewable energy in the south west our review of available resources shows the scale of opportunity that remains. The benefit of clear, consistent and assured incentives to drive investment in renewable energy can be clearly seen in 2010/2011 survey. This is most clearly demonstrated by the 2,451 new renewable electricity projects, largely driven by the FiT, compared with 546 recorded in the previous 12 months.
The deployment of larger-scale renewable energy projects continues to remain slow – the challenges of planning meant only one new large wind project was commissioned last year whilst two others were ‘repowered’ with larger, more efficient turbines. Policy attention should build upon the strong growth seen in local community interest for renewable energy by fostering public support and creating a conducive planning system.
For details on installed renewable electricity and heat projects in the south west by county, local authority and technology please see the full survey. If you would like any further information about the datasets used please click here to email Josie Ashe, our data co-ordinator.
Archive of annual surveys
| Title | File type | Download |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 annual survey | Download | |
| 2005 annual survey | Download | |
| 2006 annual survey | Download | |
| 2007 annual survey | Download | |
| 2008 annual survey | Download | |
| 2009 annual survey | Download | |
| 2010 annual survey | Download | |
| 2011 annual survey | Download |
The first turbine going up at the Goonhilly repower. The 14 old 400 kW turbines have been replaced with six new 2 MW turbines, making Goonhilly the south west's largest operational wind farm at 12 MW (Source: REG Windpower)
The largest solar PV array to be installed in 2010, Worthy Farm's 1,116 panels have a capacity of 200 kW (Source: Solarsence/Matt Cardy)
The 120 kW ground mounted solar PV array at Malmesbury (Source: Sunstroom)
