How we'll make Bristol's electricity use as smart and flexible as possible to support electricity decarbonisation nationally, and how we'll maximise local renewable energy generation.
For Bristol to be carbon neutral by 2030, more of the electricity used in the city must be from renewable sources, replacing gas and coal fuelled power plants.
Most of this happens at a national level through decarbonisation of the national grid, for example by installing large offshore wind farms in the sea.
Although Bristol cannot generate enough electricity to meet its own demand, there's lots of potential to generate more through rooftop solar panels (estimated at a total of 500 Megawatts).
We can also manage our demand through smart energy solutions, for example, using energy when the electricity network is being supplied with renewable energy.
This way, we can maximise the use of renewable energy rather than relying on fossil fuel generation. Fossil fuelled power plants are often fired up at peak times when there's not enough electricity being generated from wind or sun.
The goals from the One City Climate Strategy are to:
- maximise renewable generation in the city, including around 350megawatts of solar
- support decarbonisation of the national grid
How we've supported electricity from renewable sources and helped people to manage their electricity demand
We've:
- become the UK's first local authority to build and manage our own large-scale wind turbines in 2013 with 5MW generation capacity
- delivered a multimillion pound solar investment programme on our council and community buildings, including installing 3.8 Megawatts (MW) of solar panels across the city
We're the first local authority to have the type of energy sleeving arrangement where we can use the electricity we generate from our own wind turbines and solar farm to supply around a third of our own electricity demand.
22% of our total electricity demand now comes from Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) backed grid sources and just over a third each from local renewable generation and other grid sources. 5% is generated on site at our buildings.
We also partnered with the West of England Combined Mayoral Authority (MCA) to deliver the Solar Together scheme in Bristol. This group-buying scheme allowed residents to get high-quality solar panels at a competitive price, helping them save money on electricity bills and reduce their carbon footprint.
We also worked with the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority on the West of England Clean Power Pilot to install a new, dedicated clean power feeder pillar and mobile power hub on site at Bottle Yard Studios. This will replace some diesel generators to supply renewably powered mobile energy and charging for an entire season of major outdoor music festivals and film and television production activity.
We supported Ambition Community Energy to get funding and develop proposals to build a wind turbine with a 4.2 megawatt capacity.
How we'll support generation of electricity from renewable sources and use of smart energy solutions in the future
Through the City Leap Energy Partnership, we intend to install more solar PV on the buildings we own. Through our City Leap collaboration, we've submitted a planning application for a new 1.1 megawatt solar farm.
We've progressed on work to set up an energy sleeving pool to allow us to buy locally produced renewable energy from community generators and extend this sleeving arrangement to all council operated sites.
We're exploring new technologies, plans and investments, to support the changes we need.