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2010-11-30 07:44:05
Scottish wind farm The government is counting on a massive growth in wind power
to meet its 2020 renewable target.
The UK is making "unacceptably slow" progress towards its renewable energy
targets, a committee of MPs says.
The Committee of Public Accounts also said that there was no clear
understanding of the cost and success of some alternative technologies.
It said the Department of Energy and Climate Change needed "a greater sense of
urgency and purpose".
Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said the coalition government was determined to
"deliver on the low-carbon economy".
During its hearings, the committee was told that the UK would miss its target
to supply 10% of electricity from renewable sources by the end of 2010.
The report, Funding the Development of Renewable Energy Technologies, said the
Energy Department and its predecessors had not done enough to address the slow
progress.
The chair of the committee, Margaret Hodge, said: "Given the urgency and
importance of the issue, progress in meeting renewable energy targets has been
unacceptably slow over the last decade."
The current Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, said his department was determined
to put it right. "It will be a huge challenge but the coalition is determined
to move beyond promises and actually deliver on the low-carbon economy," he
said.
Unprepared
Ms Hodge said that some 180m of the funds allocated to support renewable
energy technologies had gone unspent.
The Energy Department seemed unprepared for the future despite signing up to
the legally binding EU-target to supply 15% of the UK's energy from renewable
sources by 2020.
The UK agreed to the EU target, the report concludes, despite having no "clear
plans, targets for each renewable energy technology, estimates of funding
required or understanding how the rate at which planning applications for
onshore wind turbines were being rejected might affect progress".
The report criticised the complex web of organisations that deliver government
funding for renewable energy technologies.
The Energy Department does not have direct control over these organisations,
and consequently "does not have a clear understanding of how much has been
spent or what has been achieved", the report said.
Mr Huhne said there was plenty of catching up to do.
"The last 10 years have been a lost decade for renewables. Labour's tragic
legacy is that we are 25th out of 27 EU member states on renewables. We have
been playing as amateurs when we should have been in the Premiership."