​This book offers a detailed account of how renewable energy has moved from the margins to the mainstream in the UK, and of the battles that have been fought to achieve this, trawling through the often troubled history of government involvement. The book examines how renewables became what now seem likely to be the dominant energy sources of the future. Renewable energy technologies, using solar and wind power and other natural energy sources, are now supplying around 30% of UK electricity and appear set to continue expanding to supply around 50% within the next decade. Although the emphasis of the book is on the UK, developments there are compared with those in other countries to provide an overall assessment of the relevance of the UK experience. Chapters explore why the UK still lags behind many other countries in deploying renewables, in part, it is argued, due to its continued reliance on nuclear power. The book ends with a discussion on what sort of changes may be expected over the coming years. The author does not assume a single answer, but invites readers to consider the possibilities.

This White Paper sets out the UK's transition plan to 2020 for becoming a low carbon country: cutting emissions, maintaining secure energy supply, maximising economic opportunities and protecting the most vulnerable. The plan will deliver emission cuts of 18 per cent on 2008 levels. Key steps include: all government departments to have carbon budgets; 40 per cent of energy from low carbon sources including 30 per cent of energy from renewables; funding of four demonstrations of capturing and storing emissions from coal power stations; new nuclear power stations. Home will be made greener by: £3.2 billion to help households become more energy efficient; rolling out smart meters to all homes by 2020; piloting "pay as you save" schemes; introducing clean energy cash-back schemes; a competition for 15 towns and villages to be pioneers in green innovation. Vulnerable sections of society will be helped by: mandated social price support; piloting a community-based approach to delivering green homes in low income areas, helping around 90,000 homes; increasing Warm Front grants. The greening of industry will be addressed through support for development and use of clean technologies, including £120 million in offshore wind and £60 million towards marine energy. Transport will be transformed: carbon dioxide emissions from new cars to be cut across the EU by 40 per cent on 2007 levels and increased support for electric cars; sourcing 10 per cent of UK transport energy from renewable sources. A framework for emissions from farming will be developed. Also published are "The UK renewable energy strategy" (Cm. 7686, ISBN 9780101768627) and "Low carbon transport" (Cm. 7682, ISBN 9780101768221).

Future Energy will allow us to make reasonable, logical and correct decisions on our future energy as a result of two of the most serious problems that the civilized world has to face; the looming shortage of oil (which supplies most of our transport fuel) and the alarming rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 50 years (resulting from the burning of oil, gas and coal and the loss of forests) that threatens to change the world’s climate through global warming. Future Energy focuses on all the types of energy available to us, taking into account a future involving a reduction in oil and gas production and the rapidly increasing amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. It is unique in the genre of books of similar title in that each chapter has been written by a scientist or engineer who is an expert in his or her field. The book is divided into four sections: • Traditional Fossil Fuel and Nuclear Energy • Renewable Energy • Potentially Important New Types of Energy • New Aspects to Future Energy Usage Each chapter highlights the basic theory and implementation, scope, problems and costs associated with a particular type of energy. The traditional fuels are included because they will be with us for decades to come - but, we hope, in a cleaner form. The renewable energy types includes wind power, wave power, tidal energy, two forms of solar energy, bio-mass, hydroelectricity, geothermal and the hydrogen economy. Potentially important new types of energy include: pebble bed nuclear reactors, nuclear fusion, methane hydrates and recent developments in fuel cells and batteries. - Written by experts in the key future energy disciplines from around the globe - Details of all possible forms of energy that are and will be available globally in the next two decades - Puts each type of available energy into perspective with realistic, future options