UK power grid readies itself for using 100% renewables by 2025
By Caoimhe Toman
Date: Tuesday 09 Apr 2019
(Sharecast News) - National Grid is readying itself to phase out fossil fuels and be able to use 100% renewable energy sources for short periods of time from 2025.
The UK is set to phase out coal completely by that date and the system wants to be "zero-carbon capable", National Grid official Julian Leslie told Bloomberg.
Currently natural gas provides over half of the UK's homes with electricity, but it could be possible with the increase in wind and solar power to cut its use to zero on windy days. Already the need for the fossil fuel reduces to under a quarter of usage on said days.
One of the key issues for the transition is to find a way to replace gas stations straight away, said Leslie.
"All of those things need to happen in order to make the zero-carbon-in-2025 aspiration happen," Leslie said in the interview. "In 2025, it may just be for half an hour, it may just be for an hour. Then gradually, in the years that follow, that time period will grow and grow."
The network will also need new equipment such as flywheels and supercharged capacitors.
National Grid said recently: "Zero carbon operation of the electricity system by 2025 means a fundamental change to how our system was designed to operate - integrating newer technologies right across the system - from large-scale off-shore wind to domestic scale solar panels to increased demand side participation, using new smart digital systems to manage and control the system in real-time."
The UK has already achieved significant emissions reductions in emissions six years in a row, largely as the result of decreased coal use and its replacement by renewables. Emissions have fallen 38% since 1990.
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