NEWS & INSIGHTS | Opinion
Electrification’s key role in reducing UK emissions and meeting growing demand
Luca Corradi
Luca works to bring “the outside in”, connecting innovators and academics across sectors and disciplines, to explore the latest technologies that could be adopted to address oil and gas industry challenges. Leading The Net Zero Technology Centre’s horizon scanning activity, he identifies emerging technology trends, cutting through the hype to identify potential areas of impact and application. With a background in business and organisational change leadership, Luca has developed a strong network and is passionate about harnessing this to deliver the next generation of the net zero energy industry.
Outside work Luca loves reading, music and travel. He is married with two young daughters and a dog. He enjoys the rare motorbike ride in Scotland and even rarer ski trip on the Alps.
More to net zero news – Seventh Carbon Budget; EU Clean Industrial Deal; Distribution Networks
Chief Technology Officer at NZTC, Luca Corradi, and his team closely monitor the global net zero landscape. They follow the trends, policies, investments, and technological innovations that, together, bring the world closer to its shared climate goals. Learn more about our horizon scanning service. This week, Luca and his team explore the UK’s pathway to greenhouse gas emission reduction, with electrification at the forefront, the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal driving decarbonisation, and the rising electricity demand shaping the future.
Pathway to reducing UK greenhouse gas emissions by 2040
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) recommends that, to meet its climate goals, the Seventh Carbon Budget should limit the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions to 535 MtCO2e between 2038 and 2042. Additionally, it suggests reducing emissions by 87% by 2040 emissions compared to 1990 levels. Rapid action and adherence to previous government commitments will achieve this. The net costs of Net Zero will be around 0.2% of UK GDP per year on average, with most of the investment to come from the private sector.
The UK will deliver the Seventh Carbon Budget through five routes: electricity, low-carbon fuels and carbon capture and storage (CCS), nature, engineered removals, and demand. Around half of the reduction during this period will come from surface transport and buildings. Meanwhile, large parts of the service-based economy will see little impact. However, other sectors, such as oil and gas, will experience significant change.
In the pathway, electrification makes up 60% of emissions reductions by 2040, primarily through measures such as decarbonising the grid and replacing fossil-fueled cars and heating systems with electric alternatives. Furthermore, Hydrogen and CCS play essential roles in this pathway. Specifically, targeting CCS at industrial sectors with limited alternatives is crucial for tackling process emissions. On the other hand, hydrogen is particularly important in industrial sectors that are hard to electrify. Additionally, it plays a key role within the electricity supply sector as a source of long-term storable and dispatchable energy, and it serves as a feedstock for synthetic fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), ammonia, and methanol.
The recommended seventh budget
The Climate Change Committee have published their advice to the UK Government for the Seventh Carbon Budget
Source: www.theccc.org.uk
EU launched Clean Industrial Deal to boost competitiveness and decarbonisation
The EU have launched the Clean Industrial Deal to accelerate competitiveness and decarbonisation of European industries. With rising geopolitical tensions, high energy costs and global competition, European industries need urgent support. The deal focuses on energy-intensive industries that need support to decarbonise, and the clean-tech sector.
The main elements of the clean Industrial deal include:
- Affordable energy – through adoption of the Affordable Energy Action Plan to lower energy bills
- Boosting demand for clean products – through the Industrial Decarbonisation Act by introducing sustainability, resilience and ‘made in Europe’ criteria in procurements with an aim for 40% of key components of renewable energy technology to be produced within the EU
- Financing the clean transition – the deal will mobilise over €100 billion to support EU-made clean manufacturing.
- Circularity and access to materials – aiming for 24% of materials to be circular by 2030
- Act on a global scale – by simplifying and strengthening the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and the launch of the Clean Trade Investment Partnership which will diversify supply chains and forge mutually beneficial deals
Ensuring a skilled workforce – by establishing a Union of Skills that invests in workers, develops skills and creates quality jobs
The EU has unveiled the Clean Industrial Deal – a plan to boost EU competitiveness and decarbonisation of EU industries
UK Electricity demand and network investment projections
Electricity demand in the UK is projected to increase by around 50% by 2035 and double by 2050. As a result, the network must be able to meet this demand while maintaining a reliable electricity supply to consumers. The low voltage distribution network connects homes, most businesses, and around a third of generation, while also exporting some power to other parts of the country via the transmission network. Therefore, the distribution network will be critical not only to decarbonising the power sector but also to electrifying heat and transport, as well as enabling economic growth.
Until now, the distribution network growth has been steady, but demand is rapidly increasing and there is a need for a step change. The Commission estimates that the UK will need between £37-50 billion of investment to support the increase in demand and generation from today to 2050. To meet demand and deliver benefits, the Commission provides eight system-wide reforms. These include going further and faster on digitalising the network and deploying flexibility, reviewing security of supply standards, developing more strategic planning, improving the connections process, targeted reforms of the planning and consenting system, and reforming and simplifying price controls.
Electricity demand is expected to accelerate through the 2030s
The report by the National Infrastructure Commission into distributed electricity networks provides eight recommendations to meet future electricity demand
Graph source: nic.org.uk
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