Massive solar farms usually grab substantial media attention; but the “quiet achiever” of renewable energy, microgeneration, could supply up to 40% of the UK’s electricity demand by 2050 says Micropower Europe.
Microgeneration collectively refers to clean energy production associated with homes or small buildings of up to 500 square metres. It includes technologies such biomass heating systems, heat pumps, fuel cells, micro-combined heat and power, solar panels, solar hot water, concentrated solar power, small hydro and small-scale wind power.
Micropower Europe says these technologies encourage energy efficient behaviour by raising energy consciousness among consumers. In households where microgeneration information is displayed, energy consumption drops by as much as 20%. 88% of consumers who installed microgeneration systems found that household behaviour was significantly altered to reduce energy consumption after installation.
While clean power technologies are popular with politicians, industry and consumers; substantial uptake within Europe will remain challenging until certain barriers are removed says the organisation. The most commonly perceived barriers are legislation, high cost and the level of consumer awareness.
Micropower Europe proposes a thorough investigation to collect data in further support of the case towards mass market microgeneration. In turn, a strategy is needed to underline the importance of legislative commitments at multiple levels of governance.
Micropower Europe is a broad-based grouping of companies and organisations set up to raise the profile of the EU microgeneration sector and to campaign for improvements in the legislative and regulatory framework to support the growth of the industry.
Source: Micropower Europe
