An Investigation of Urban Energy Independence in the UK

Abstract

Producing electricity using fossil fuel resources has caused many problems to the environment. These problems include air pollution, climate change, and global warming. In addition, the existing power generation networks in most countries are suffering from issues such as meeting the demand of energy. Therefore, it is important to investigate new energy production and distribution solutions to eliminate these issues. Independent energy production in smart power grids might be the way to achieve this goal. The idea involves consumers becoming producers throughout generating and consuming clean renewable energy, and possibly selling it to the grid whenever there is a high demand of electricity. However, with more energy producers in residential areas, there will be more renewable energy production and less energy from fossil fuel resources. As a result, the effect of most environmental issues will be limited and the issue of meeting the energy demand will be resolved. The aim of this research is to investigate the social, technical, and economical aspects of energy independence in the UK. The findings show that the technology is developing, and that distributed power generation among indivisual households is growing, resulting in more economical and environmental benefits.