WELCOME

The Renewable Energy Foundation is a registered research and education charity encouraging the development of renewable energy and energy conservation whilst emphasizing that such development must be governed by the fundamental principles of sustainability.

REF is supported by private donation and has no political affiliation or corporate membership. In pursuit of its principal goals REF highlights the need for an overall energy policy that is balanced, ecologically sensitive, and effective.

REF is part of a growing national consensus that the United Kingdom's energy policy is unbalanced, and that the drive for renewable energy generation has been inadequately planned.

We aim to raise public awareness of the issues and encourage the creation of a structured energy policy for the UK that is both ecologically sensitive and practical. The issues of climate change and security of energy supply are complex and closely intertwined. REF contributes to the debate surrounding these issues by commissioning reports from leading consultancies and scientists to provide an independent and authoritative source of information.

In its many publications REF argues that the United Kingdom can make a significant contribution to global climate change policy only by providing an economically compelling example of low carbon growth to the developing world. Thus, we argue that climate change policy is logically dependent on successful policies relating to security and reliability of energy provision. (See Future Proofing UK Energy, a commentary on the 2006 Energy Review.) REF is extremely concerned that current policies underestimate the rate of decline of conventional capacity and misunderstand the contribution that renewables can make. This is resulting in slender capacity margins, an accidental and now arguably unavoidable over-dependency on gas for electricity generation, the likelihood of high electricity price, and the probability that the UK will have to fall back on obsolescent coal plant around 2015. For the details of this argument see REF's Electricity Prices in the United Kingdom: Fundamental Drivers and Probable Trends 2008-2020, which was published in May 2008.

REF is also the publisher of the Renewable Energy Data files, a unique informational and educational resource giving performance statistics for all renewable electricity generators registered under the Renewables Obligation.

For more information see About REF.