ABSTRACT

Renewables include solar, wind, geothermal and water energy, and nuclear power and plants with CCS offer energy with limited CO2 emissions. Available renewable sources of power in the UK include biomass, waste digestion, solar and wind energy, as well as the long-standing use of hydropower. Bioenergy in its various forms was, in 2010, the largest part of the renewables sector, with over 60 percent of the energy generated. The biomass more closely associated with building projects comes from the waste products of the timber industry, forestry and parks maintenance etc. Wind power is now almost entirely used to generate electricity, and UK energy from this source has risen from 1TWh in 2000 to 15TWh in 2011, split 30:70 between onshore and offshore generation. Photovoltaics rely on the production of an electron flow between two surfaces when sunlight falls on the upper silicon surface.