Maximising The Potential Of Renewables

"I have a vision of the UK being almost 100% renewably powered."

Could you go a day without turning on a switch? Energy enables many of our daily activities, and overall, the energy systems we've built have completely changed the trajectory of modern life.

Energy has unlocked a huge amount of progress, but its benefits come with a byproduct. Using fossil fuels, as we currently do, generates carbon emissions that disrupt our weather systems and have a devastating impact on planetary health. To continue on our current path of prosperity we must urgently decarbonise the systems that power our world.

As Juliet Davenport explains, change of this scale may not be smooth, but the opportunity it represents is enormous.

Juliet is a renewable energy expert. In the late 1990s she set up Good Energy – a company that supplies renewable energy to businesses and homes. Since then, she has witnessed huge growth in electrical demand, around 84% of which is currently coming from renewables.

Technologies are key in the shift towards electrification. The green energy blend includes a wide range of solutions, from the more traditional options like hydro, wind and solar, to biomass technologies that produce fuel from food or agricultural waste.

While supply and demand don't always match up, storage technologies like batteries and hydrogen can help to bridge that gap, and promising developments in fusion suggest it could also play a part in the energy mix.

In Juliet's vision of the future, the UK is almost 100% powered by renewables. What would it take to get there?

A shift in the way consumers demand their energy could prove to be a game-changer. The private sector can also play a significant role in accelerating the transition, and many companies are leading the charge to redesign our existing energy systems.

When it comes to maximising the potential of renewables, innovation is already sparking change.