Nearly £5 billion will have to be invested in upgrading the UK's electricity connections in order to meet key climate change targets, according to experts, amid warnings of a "clean energy crunch".
The Electricity Networks Strategy Group, that advises the Government on energy issues, said the biggest expansion in the national grid since the 1960s is needed over the next decade.
If the upgrade does not go ahead then it will be difficult to meet the UK's target to generate 30 per cent of electricity from new renewable because new power sources like wind farms and tidal power projects will be unable to connect to the nation's homes.
The upgrade, including 1,000 kilometres of new cables, will need to start now with work to install high voltage subsea cable links between Scotland and England.
The warning came as a separate report from New Energy Finance predicted a "clean energy crunch" will follow the credit crunch.
The analysts warned that investment in low carbon energy will need to increase in order to meet climate change targets, despite the economic downturn.
Global investment in renewable energy sources, efficient energy use and carbon capture and storage, increased from £24 billion in 2004 to around £106 billion in both 2007 and 2008.
But the NEF Global Futures report said investment needed to reach £355 billion in the next decade to ensure that carbon emissions peaked before 2020.
Friends of the Earth's executive director Andy Atkins said if investment is not made now then the UK will fall behind the rest of the world in green energy.
"The UK could be a world leader in green power – we are the windiest country in Europe and have the continent's best wave and tidal resources," he said.
"But up to now the short-term attitude of the energy regulator Ofgem and lack of strategic thinking have stood in the way of the massive expansion of renewable energy needed to tackle climate change and bring hundreds of thousands of new jobs to this country."
Source: The Daily Telegraph
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