The government is counting on a massive growth in wind power to meet its 2020 renewable target. A public accounts watchdog has criticised the UK’s “unacceptably slow” progress towards meeting its renewable energy targets.
It also says that there was no clear understanding of the cost and success of some alternative technologies.
The strong criticisms have been made by MPs on the Committee of Public Accounts, chaired by Margaret Hodge.
She said that the Department of Energy and Climate Change needs “a greater sense of urgency and purpose”.
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.
As a result, the Department did not expect to meet the 10% target until 2012, from a starting position of 2.7% in 2000.
Ms Hodge said: “Given the urgency and importance of the issue, progress in meeting renewable energy targets has been unacceptably slow over the last decade.”
She 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.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.