Powering the Future Summary Report - Parsons Brinckerhoff

Powering the Future Summary Report
Powering the Future Summary Report
BP reports that the R/P ratio for worldwide natural gas
is 63 years; for Europe it is also 63 years.
Coal has a worldwide R/P ratio of 122 years, with
Europe having 51 years. The UK is shown to have
155 million tonnes of coal reserve. At the current rate
of production, this would last just nine years (from the
end of 2008), giving the UK an R/P ratio of nine.
In 2006, the OECD published information concerning
uranium reserves 7 , stating that known resources would
last 85 years at the current rate of use. There are
other sources of nuclear fuel, such as thorium which
occurs naturally at three times the level of uranium.
Technology to use thorium in existing nuclear reactors
is not mature, but there is potential for at least their
partial conversion to use this fuel.
Biomass – non-fossil fuels derived from plant
materials and animal waste – is a key resource
but it is inconsistently defined, creating inevitable
discrepancies between available data. In 2005, the
Carbon Trust produced a review 8 that shows that
UK-sourced biomass has energy equal to 3.5 million
tonnes of oil equivalent (MTOE) at current levels of
production, with a potential to supply twice this value.
By contrast, Defra suggests 9 that the current level of
UK-sourced biomass energy is 5.6 to 6.7 MTOE. With
imports, the maximum available biomass in the UK
is likely to be limited to around 20 MTOE. Biogas is
produced from the biological decay of organic matter
and can generally be used as an alternative means of
delivery of biomass energy, but it is unlikely to radically
increase the available biomass energy resource.
Figure 4 CO 2 emissions from primary energy sources by sector 10
Figure 5 Breakdown of UK economy fuel use 2006 11
7
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Nuclear Energy Agency, International Atomic Energy Agency, ‘Uranium
2005: Resources, Production and Demand’ 2005.
8
Paul Arwas Associates, Black & Veatch Ltd, ‘Biomass Sector Review for the Carbon Trust’ 2005.
9
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, ‘UK Biomass Strategy’ 2007.
10
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, ‘Table 5b: Estimated emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2) by National
Communication source category, type of fuel and end user: 1970-2007’ 2008.
11
Derived from: Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, ‘DUKES Table 1.3: Supply and use of fuels’ 2008.
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