(Bloomberg) -- The UK “runs a real risk” if it focuses too much on wind instead of targeting a mix of technologies to decarbonize its energy system, Centrica Plc’s chief executive warned.
“We run a real risk if we focus too much on new wind as we look to decarbonise the energy system of the future,” Chris O’Shea wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday. “A net zero future requires a range of technologies, and a good balance.”
O’Shea cited grid data to argue that the UK’s 30 gigawatts of installed wind generation capacity has produced 4.41 gigawatts of electricity on average in the last week — less than 15% utilization during the period. Also, over the last year, wind has generated only about 9.43 gigawatts, taking utilization to about 30%, he wrote.
The comments come as Britain’s recently-elected government wants a zero-carbon electricity system by the end of this decade. That will require billions of pounds of new investment in renewables, an area that’s seen delays and cost increases, alongside an overhaul of the country’s planning rules.
A big test for the government looms later this summer, when it hopes to get wind farm operators to bid for power contracts under a system intended to foster investment. The last government increased the budget for the contracts for difference auctions after an embarrassing failure in 2023, but it still looks too small to back all the projects currently ready to build.
Ed Miliband, secretary of state for energy security and net zero, has hinted the funding could be increased further. It’s a move O’Shea questioned.
“And should we ask why subsidies are needed for wind farms in the form of a guaranteed price for the electricity produced?,” he wrote in his post. “It’s served us well in the past, and it may well serve us well in the future, but we should at least ask the question.”
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