The UK and Germany will need more flexible backup capacity as more than half of their electricity generation will come from renewables in the 2020s, a study by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) released during the COP 23 climate conference in Bonn states.

The rapid growth in variable renewables will lead to much greater volatility in the power system, challenging inflexible ‘baseload’ generators and creating opportunities for new flexible sources, says the study Beyond the tipping point: flexibility gaps in future high-renewable energy systems in the UK, Germany and the Nordics.