Running out of renewables

A groundswell of large companies signing up to renewable 'green' electricity tariffs has seen demand soar to 34 terrawatt hours (TWh), far exceeding the current supply of around 12.2 TWh.

A spokesman for British Gas Business, which offers a green energy tariff, told the FT that supply would become 'an impossiblity' if 'the bottleneck doesn't ease'.

Although the demand for green electricity is welcome, a fear is emerging that the definition of 'renewable electricity' could be 'diluted'. Paul Stewart, an analyst from Datamonitor, told the FT that it could even be extended to include nuclear power.

This article first appeared in the Ecologist March 2007