UK renewables investment outstripped by China & US

UK investment in renewables is being outstripped by China and the US. Other countries are investing in renewables, so the UK has no reason to hold back on doing the […]

UK investment in renewables is being outstripped by China and the US. Other countries are investing in renewables, so the UK has no reason to hold back on doing the same, according to Martin Pollock, Director of Metering Services at Siemens Energy.

Mr Pollock told delegates at the Marketforce and ASI Future of Utilities conference: “China’s installed base is, as we speak, about to pass that of the United States, and both its growth rate and its investment rate are double that or more of any other country. There’s no excuse to say that there’s no point in us doing anything, because bigger forces at work in other parts of the world are going to swamp us. These sources are addressing the issue with at least as much gusto as we are ourselves.”

And many European countries have an advantage over the UK when it comes to investment, he added: “We are investing at a reasonable rate, at about two thirds of the US. We are growing very rapidly but from a small base, smaller in fact than all our European neighbours, like Germany, France, Italy, Spain, smaller than Japan, smaller than Brazil and India.”

The UK needs to rethink its attitude to renewable energy because it will be increasingly important, Mr Pollock suggested: “We’re already into the area where we’re reliant on renewables and over the foreseeable future, the short term, that reliance is going to become stronger and stronger. They’re no longer something that’s nice to have, toys to develop and theorise about.”

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