Land based renewables

By 2020, the proposed EU requirement is that the UK meets 15% of its final energy demand from renewable sources, which equates to around 40% for electricity. There is an urgent research need to understand the environmental implications of this requirement, as the recent controversy over biofuels shows.

The UK seeks to exploit a finite land area to produce both low-carbon energy (from wind farms and solar power to biofuels) and to absorb carbon emissions via sequestration. At the same time, the urban land area continues to grow (e.g. London needs 125 times its own area to provide the resources it consumes). The vision for the ‘ecocities’ of the future embodies a multitude of microgeneration and shallow subsurface renewable energy technologies whose collective impact on terrestrial and freshwater systems is not known and whose potential for carbon sequestration has not been fully explored.

This action seeks to forecast the renewables ‘energyscape’ of the UK using a systems approach that incorporates non-energy land uses in the assessment, and predicts where the greatest (or least-damaging) environmental gains might be. The science goal is to develop an integrated, quantitative understanding of the consequences of using land for renewable energy production on the resilience of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. An exemplar objective is: a whole-systems analysis of the use of land for carbon manipulation.

The activity on Land-Based Renewables forms part of the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources (SUNR) Theme of the NERC Strategy. Other Actions within the SUNR Theme e.g. on Marine Renewable Energy will also help meet this need. Up to £2.4 million has been invested to date in support of collaborative grants to address this topic, including a financial contribution from Shell UK of £350k. Natural England is contributing support in kind to the research programme which has included expertise helping define the scope. The projects that were funded were developed and assessed via a Sandpit process that was held in June 2009. Natural England and Shell UK both participated in the Sandpit.

How the research will be used

The results of the programme will directly relate to the delivery of the NERC Strategy (in particular Sustainable Use of Natural Resources Science Themes) and UK Governments Strategic Goals with respect to the use of land based renewable energy.

The outputs of these research projects will contribute to the use of scientific evidence to inform policy and decision making about the future deployment of energy systems, directly benefiting agencies such as Natural England and the Environment Agency. 

The results will provide important information to land users and planners such as Forestry Commission, utility companies and land-owners, to make informed assessments on renewable energy.

The UK economy and society in general will benefit from any subsequent deployment of land based renewables, there will be direct benefits to energy security and the impacts of climate change, and this research will contribute towards the UK meeting the planned reductions in carbon emissions by 2050.

By maximising the benefits of using land based renewable energy this will in turn relieve some of the increased pressure on other ecosystem services.

UK and international academics and research communities will benefit as the results of these research projects, which should identify gaps in our current understanding and provide a focus for opportunity for new research, in addition to providing new data and improved methods in the area of renewable energy.