Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) Re-energising Wales Project

IWA is an independent think tank working to develop practical ideas and strategies to improve the economy, education, environment and health in Wales.

IWA’s Re-Energising Wales project will provide a practical blueprint to enable Wales to meet its projected energy demands entirely from renewable sources by 2035, resulting in an 80 per cent reduction in energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Six separate work streams will come together to deliver the project. The aim is to create a plan which could be adopted by decision makers, to make Wales a net exporter of renewable energy.

Regen are completing work package 2 of the project, which aims to develop an energy portfolio/system case study for the Swansea Bay City Region to 2035. This whole energy system vision will maximise use of local renewable energy resource helping to enable the transition to a clean energy system in Wales.

The energy system model will consider:

• the aim to generate the equivalent of 100 per cent of the region’s net annual electricity consumption
• a target of 50g CO₂e/kWh of electricity consumed in the region by 2035
• the roll out of electric vehicles and decarbonisation of the transport network
• the use of smart and flexible energy technology (including energy storage and demand side response)
• the role of energy efficiency and the development of low carbon heat technology
• continued decentralisation of energy assets through local and community ownership.

Policy recommendations will be developed from the modelling analysis to outline how the region can encourage decarbonisation and decentralisation of the energy system and also highlight current barriers to this vision.

Final report can be found here.

Further details on the entire Re-energising Wales project are available here.

Led by: Johnny Gowdy

Contact: jgowdy@regen.co.uk