Tory leader David Cameron wants households to be metered for renewable energy: a move that has been welcomed by BWEA, the UK’s renewable energy association.

Cameron’s call for a ‘smart grid’ with ‘smart meter’ technology for households & businesses and his support for a vast expansion of offshore windfarms with new incentives to build the necessary sub-sea grid network is seen as the key to ‘de-carbonising’ the UK economy.

BWEA Chairman Adam Bruce said “The Conservative plans recognise that moving to a green economy will create jobs, secure our energy supplies and tackle climate change. Britain needs a green energy revolution that delivers security of supply and better management of demand. Today’s announcement is a positive step towards what will be a transformational event in UK energy policy.”

Wind, wave and tidal energy will play a vital role in decarbonising the economy. To reach the 2020 target of generating 15% of all the UK’s energy from renewables, between 35 to 40% of UK electricity will have to come from renewables, which in turn means having 33 to 35GW of installed wind capacity.

To go further and fully decarbonise the economy will require even greater amounts of renewable production – including harnessing Britain’s huge wave and tidal power resource, as well as radical reform of the nation’s grid infrastructure.

‘The BWEA looks forward to working with the Conservative party over the coming months to flesh out some of their proposals, as well as working through some areas not covered in the Report, particularly the current and future contribution of onshore wind generation.

‘There is currently 7GW of onshore schemes in the planning system in the UK, much of these with Conservative councils, which if approved could save nearly 8 million tonnes of CO2 a year.

We will not achieve our existing ambitious targets for 2020, or these new aspirations for 2050 without every available source of renewable energy supply,’ he added.