“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç

Reforms are needed to the financing and planning of renewable energy projects if they are to win public support. This is the key message of a report released late last month and entitled Renewable Energy in the UK, Financing Options for the Future.

Published by the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), the report is written by Catherine Mitchell of the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex. In it she looks at past experience of financial support through the Non Fossil Fuel Obligation and suggests improvements to the financing and planning of future renewables plant -- both within impending rounds of NFFO contracts and beyond.

"In the final run up the announcement of the next round of bidding for NFFO contracts (NFFO-4), it is crucial that we learn from the lessons of the past," says the CPRE's Lilli Matson. "Ambitions for increasing the amount of electricity from renewable sources will only succeed if the public are happy to continue to support it."

A more detailed look at the report will appear in “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç's next issue.