Delivering key changes across the transforming energy landscape

The government’s commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 has major implications for industry and society. With over a quarter of all UK carbon dioxide emissions currently attributed to the energy sector (the second highest source of emissions after transport), it’s clear that significant changes will have to take place within the next three decades in terms of how we produce energy, as well as how it is delivered and used.

Renewable energy has taken off in recent years. Tumbling costs have meant we now get around 30 per cent of our energy from wind turbines, solar panels, bioenergy and hydropower. Renewables will clearly have an even greater role in coming years, as will energy-from-waste (EfW) plants that divert waste from landfill and help local communities gain electricity and heat from a local, sustainable source. Operating three EfW plants in England, we understand the valuable role they play and appreciate why plans for the construction of many more are being planned across the UK.

We continue to see rapid growth in connections of renewable supplies to existing networks as many of the large energy suppliers take a targeted approach to improving energy efficiency. Amey is supporting these efforts through its design and construction capabilities on such projects as Tomatin in Inverness, which will enable SSEN Transmission to connect new renewable energy to their high voltage transmission system.

However, there is still much more to be learnt about the way we produce and transmit renewable sources of energy. Our teams continue to support clients in their aim to bring technical innovation on to the national electricity transmission network. The team has been working closely with National Grid on the design and construction of an electrical asset-testing facility in Deeside. Centres such as this will be fundamental in developing and managing the increasing demand for wind and solar power and will allow for the research and development of new unconventional technologies and practices, thereby accelerating innovation in this area.

The lion’s share of our electricity is still produced by large, centralised power stations. Many experts see a move away from these as smaller, nimbler, decentralised sources of energy proliferate across the UK. Our utilities business is exploring how we can create these localised power grids, while working with our consulting team to ensure existing energy assets perform as reliably as possible – using data to determine when and how we intervene in the maintenance of these assets.

There are many moving parts in the energy sector at present. Much of this is driven by our commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions but it is also about the rapid need for innovation. While the energy landscape continues to transform, at Amey we find ourselves in a privileged position of implementing much of the change that everyone is expecting to see.

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