Government will not ‘pass the buck’ on energy to future generations – minister
Claudia Savage, Will Durrant and Rhiannon James,
Claudia Savage, Will Durrant and Rhiannon James,
PA Political Staff
Fri, July 26, 2024
The Government will not be “passing the buck” on building renewable energy infrastructure to future generations, a minister has said.
Energy minister Michael Shanks also told MPs that some areas will have to host “nationally significant” power infrastructure such as solar farms in response to concerns expressed about the “detrimental impacts” on communities.
MPs had a general debate on Friday on making Britain a “clean energy superpower”, with the Great British Energy Bill due to receive its second reading after the summer recess.
Conservative MP for Huntingdon Ben Obese-Jecty raised the East Park Energy solar farm, a proposed project in his constituency, which he said would be “larger than Gatwick Airport”.
Energy minister Michael Shanks said ‘we need to tackle this crisis’ (PA)
He said local residents have “grave concerns” over the scale of the development and asked the minister if he would commit to rural communities having a say on the Government allowing large solar farms to be built in their local areas “given the detrimental impacts”.
Mr Shanks replied: “We’re not in any way going to remove the ability of communities to be part of, of course, a consultation process in the planning system.”
He added: “But at some point, we have to have this national recognition that there is infrastructure that we need that is nationally significant.
“Some communities will have to host that infrastructure and there should be benefits for those communities in doing it.
“But that doesn’t mean that we should stop doing it and I’m afraid the days of Government passing the buck to a future generation to fix these issues are gone.
“We need to tackle this crisis and that means we will be building and there will be projects in communities, with consultation of course, but nationally significant projects will have to go ahead if we want to reach the targets by 2030.”
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has sold his MPs down the river and that energy bills will not reduce under Labour.
Ms Coutinho said: “The people now sitting on the benches behind the minister will have been telling their new constituents that their plans would save them £300 on their energy bills – they said it in hustings, they said it on local media, they said it on their leaflets. But they will have noticed by now that their ministers are no longer saying that at all.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said Labour’s approach to energy ‘will add huge costs to people’s bills’ (PA)
“And this is the problem, when you get into government, and you speak in the House, you cannot use numbers for which you have no basis.”
This was met with laughter from the Labour benches.
Ms Coutinho continued: “They will learn this, they laugh, but their voters won’t forget that they made them that promise.”
She added: “They all know that their leadership has sold them down the river on this one, because the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State know those savings cannot be delivered. In fact, their approach to energy will add huge costs to people’s bills.
“That’s not us being evil Tories on this side of the House, that’s also the view of the European lead for Mitsubishi Power who said that Labour Party plans would require a huge sacrifice from Brits.”
Former Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden also criticised the Government over its claim that clean energy plans would knock £300 off bills.
He said: “It’s been causing quite a lot of confusion in the national media over the last couple of days when Downing Street have been saying one thing, (Mr Shanks’) department have been saying another.”
Mr Shanks replied: “I think it does take a bit of a brass neck to come here and talk about bringing down bills when the government that he supported for a long time saw those skyrocket.
“We’ve been very clear, bills will come down, we said that throughout the campaign, we said that yesterday and we stand by that because bills must come down, but this isn’t going to happen overnight.”
Elsewhere in the debate, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for climate change Wera Hobhouse said the race to net zero is the “major economic opportunity of the century”.
She said: “The green economy must sit at the heart of economic growth, and the Government has work to do to reverse the damaging narrative of the previous government, that this is about green versus growth.
“And also to reverse the unforgivable failures of the last Conservative government, which delayed, blocked or even reversed urgent action on climate change. Now is the time to move forward.”
Winding up, Tory shadow energy minister Joy Morrissey pointed to plans for a Government-backed company called GB Energy to “accelerate Britain’s pathway to energy independence”.
Ms Morrissey said the plan “is simply the Government subsidising high-risk projects for the private sector on the one hand, whilst decimating our oil and gas industry on the other”.
Ms Hobhouse intervened and said: “Is the shadow minister not aware that exactly this negative narrative from her party has held us back in the way to net zero?”
In his winding up speech, Mr Shanks said: “The rhetoric that we’re now hearing from this Conservative Party is a million miles from that David Cameron conservatism that said we should take the environment seriously.”
He added: “The reason that we’re on this journey is not because of some sort of ideological commitment to net zero, but because we know it is the only way to deliver the energy security that we need to reduce our dependence on volatile gas prices and to deliver the cheaper energy that we know will bring down bills.”
Fri, July 26, 2024
The Government will not be “passing the buck” on building renewable energy infrastructure to future generations, a minister has said.
Energy minister Michael Shanks also told MPs that some areas will have to host “nationally significant” power infrastructure such as solar farms in response to concerns expressed about the “detrimental impacts” on communities.
MPs had a general debate on Friday on making Britain a “clean energy superpower”, with the Great British Energy Bill due to receive its second reading after the summer recess.
Conservative MP for Huntingdon Ben Obese-Jecty raised the East Park Energy solar farm, a proposed project in his constituency, which he said would be “larger than Gatwick Airport”.
Energy minister Michael Shanks said ‘we need to tackle this crisis’ (PA)
He said local residents have “grave concerns” over the scale of the development and asked the minister if he would commit to rural communities having a say on the Government allowing large solar farms to be built in their local areas “given the detrimental impacts”.
Mr Shanks replied: “We’re not in any way going to remove the ability of communities to be part of, of course, a consultation process in the planning system.”
He added: “But at some point, we have to have this national recognition that there is infrastructure that we need that is nationally significant.
“Some communities will have to host that infrastructure and there should be benefits for those communities in doing it.
“But that doesn’t mean that we should stop doing it and I’m afraid the days of Government passing the buck to a future generation to fix these issues are gone.
“We need to tackle this crisis and that means we will be building and there will be projects in communities, with consultation of course, but nationally significant projects will have to go ahead if we want to reach the targets by 2030.”
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has sold his MPs down the river and that energy bills will not reduce under Labour.
Ms Coutinho said: “The people now sitting on the benches behind the minister will have been telling their new constituents that their plans would save them £300 on their energy bills – they said it in hustings, they said it on local media, they said it on their leaflets. But they will have noticed by now that their ministers are no longer saying that at all.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said Labour’s approach to energy ‘will add huge costs to people’s bills’ (PA)
“And this is the problem, when you get into government, and you speak in the House, you cannot use numbers for which you have no basis.”
This was met with laughter from the Labour benches.
Ms Coutinho continued: “They will learn this, they laugh, but their voters won’t forget that they made them that promise.”
She added: “They all know that their leadership has sold them down the river on this one, because the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State know those savings cannot be delivered. In fact, their approach to energy will add huge costs to people’s bills.
“That’s not us being evil Tories on this side of the House, that’s also the view of the European lead for Mitsubishi Power who said that Labour Party plans would require a huge sacrifice from Brits.”
Former Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden also criticised the Government over its claim that clean energy plans would knock £300 off bills.
He said: “It’s been causing quite a lot of confusion in the national media over the last couple of days when Downing Street have been saying one thing, (Mr Shanks’) department have been saying another.”
Mr Shanks replied: “I think it does take a bit of a brass neck to come here and talk about bringing down bills when the government that he supported for a long time saw those skyrocket.
“We’ve been very clear, bills will come down, we said that throughout the campaign, we said that yesterday and we stand by that because bills must come down, but this isn’t going to happen overnight.”
Elsewhere in the debate, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for climate change Wera Hobhouse said the race to net zero is the “major economic opportunity of the century”.
She said: “The green economy must sit at the heart of economic growth, and the Government has work to do to reverse the damaging narrative of the previous government, that this is about green versus growth.
“And also to reverse the unforgivable failures of the last Conservative government, which delayed, blocked or even reversed urgent action on climate change. Now is the time to move forward.”
Winding up, Tory shadow energy minister Joy Morrissey pointed to plans for a Government-backed company called GB Energy to “accelerate Britain’s pathway to energy independence”.
Ms Morrissey said the plan “is simply the Government subsidising high-risk projects for the private sector on the one hand, whilst decimating our oil and gas industry on the other”.
Ms Hobhouse intervened and said: “Is the shadow minister not aware that exactly this negative narrative from her party has held us back in the way to net zero?”
In his winding up speech, Mr Shanks said: “The rhetoric that we’re now hearing from this Conservative Party is a million miles from that David Cameron conservatism that said we should take the environment seriously.”
He added: “The reason that we’re on this journey is not because of some sort of ideological commitment to net zero, but because we know it is the only way to deliver the energy security that we need to reduce our dependence on volatile gas prices and to deliver the cheaper energy that we know will bring down bills.”
Crown Estate Partners With GB Energy to Expand Wind Power
Eamon Akil Farhat and William Mathis
Thu, July 25, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- The Crown Estate of King Charles III will partner with a new state-backed company to accelerate the building of offshore wind farms that are vital to the UK’s energy and climate goals.
Thursday’s announcement marks the first concrete step by the government to use Great British Energy in its quest for a zero-carbon electric grid by 2030. The collaboration with the Crown Estate, owners of the UK’s seabed, means the public sector will get involved in projects earlier and may attract more private funding.
“I don’t just want to be in the race for clean energy; I want us to win the race for clean energy,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday in a speech in Runcorn, northwest England. “We’ve got the potential, we’ve got the ports, we’ve got the people, the skills.”
Juergen Maier, a British-Austrian national who led Siemens UK from 2014 to 2019 and is Vice-Chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, has been appointed to chair Great British Energy.
The agreement could leverage as much as £60 billion ($77 billion) of investment into the UK’s renewables business, the government said. Energy security and the need for the state to play a bigger role in guaranteeing that was a major campaign issue for recently-elected Starmer.
Though the company will be free to make its own decisions, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, will prepare and lay before Parliament a statement of strategic priorities for the company. He could also give directions to the firm following a similar parliamentary procedure.
“The first test of GB Energy and its partnership with the Crown Estate will be in this year’s CfD auction,” said Sam Hollister, head of energy economics, policy and investment at consultants LCP Delta. “With zero offshore wind procured last year, the industry and the UK’s decarbonization ambitions are playing catch-up.”
LCP Delta estimates that the UK must procure 15 gigawatts of capacity in the next two auctions to reach a 55 gigawatt target. Earlier this year, LCP Delta estimated that the current budget would only lead to 4-6 gigawatts of capacity at the next auction.
Great British Energy is receiving £8.3 billion of taxpayer money to own and operate assets in collaboration with the private sector. By allowing borrowing, the government believes 20-30 gigawatts of new offshore wind seabed leases can be secured by 2030.
--With assistance from Alex Morales.
ScottishPower boss hopes to double UK energy investment by 2030
Alex Daniel, PA Business Reporter
Sat, July 27, 2024
ScottishPower’s boss has said he hopes to double the firm’s investments in UK energy projects to as much as £24 billion if Labour’s policy changes pay off.
Chief executive Keith Anderson said ScottishPower has a spending programme of £12 billion in the years to 2028, but that he would “love to double that by the time we get to 2030”.
Though he stopped short of committing the funding, he told the PA news agency: “If the Government can halve the time it takes to get projects through planning, I’ll double the amount I invest in this country.
“The Government wants to get clean power by 2030, it wants to quadruple offshore wind by 2030.
“To get there, companies need to double the amount that they invest in (the UK), and that’s what we want to do.”
ScottishPower supplies energy to 4.4 million homes and businesses, builds onshore and offshore wind farms and runs vast tracts of the power grid across Scotland, and parts of England and Wales.
The money would go towards green energy projects such as putting up more wind turbines, he said, as well as improving the size and scope of the grid, which is expected to come under strain because of the shift to renewables.
As well as being an energy supplier, ScottishPower builds wind farms and runs parts of the power grid (Gareth Fuller/PA)
However, the plans hinge on whether Labour’s reforms to planning and energy policy bear fruit.
Earlier this month, energy secretary Ed Miliband scrapped a de facto ban on onshore wind farms, reversing planning measures brought in for England by the Conservatives in 2015 under David Cameron.
Onshore wind was treated differently from other developments under the rules, which stopped schemes going ahead if there were any objections.
Mr Anderson said: “If we can build a project in two years then it shouldn’t be sitting in the planning system for any more than two years. Right now these projects can sit there for over seven years.
“The Government is saying they are focused on accelerating projects through that system, and that’s exactly what we want to see.”
Labour said on Thursday that it will also partner with the monarchy’s property firm, the Crown Estate, which owns the UK’s seabeds, to help speed up investment and building of offshore wind farms, through its new state-owned energy company GB Energy.
Business groups urged the Government to give more detail on how the partnership would work in practice, to assuage concerns that GB Energy could act as a competitor and impede firms’ plans to invest.
Dan McGrail, chief executive of energy business group RenewableUK, said it is “vital that (GB Energy) doesn’t disrupt the billions of pounds of private investment the Government will need to deliver their clean power ambitions, so the next steps of its development will have to be formed in close partnership with the sector”.
Speaking before the GB Energy announcement, Mr Anderson said he is “optimistic” after seeing Sir Keir Starmer speak at a gathering of business leaders in the garden of 10 Downing Street on Wednesday.
“Whether that’s at the reception (on Wednesday), or at some of the other meetings we’ve been at over the last 10 days with the Government, there is a very positive atmosphere that things are going to change, that we’re going to work together and that we’re going to get this economic growth.”
A complicating factor is that it is ultimately a decision for his bosses at Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, which owns ScottishPower and also has subsidiaries across the Americas.
Mr Anderson said: “We compete for capital as a country, alongside Spain, America, Brazil and Mexico because we’re investing in lots of different countries.
“The faster I can get projects through the (planning) process, the more I can compete and accelerate the amount of capital I can get hold of.”
Eamon Akil Farhat and William Mathis
Thu, July 25, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- The Crown Estate of King Charles III will partner with a new state-backed company to accelerate the building of offshore wind farms that are vital to the UK’s energy and climate goals.
Thursday’s announcement marks the first concrete step by the government to use Great British Energy in its quest for a zero-carbon electric grid by 2030. The collaboration with the Crown Estate, owners of the UK’s seabed, means the public sector will get involved in projects earlier and may attract more private funding.
“I don’t just want to be in the race for clean energy; I want us to win the race for clean energy,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday in a speech in Runcorn, northwest England. “We’ve got the potential, we’ve got the ports, we’ve got the people, the skills.”
Juergen Maier, a British-Austrian national who led Siemens UK from 2014 to 2019 and is Vice-Chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, has been appointed to chair Great British Energy.
The agreement could leverage as much as £60 billion ($77 billion) of investment into the UK’s renewables business, the government said. Energy security and the need for the state to play a bigger role in guaranteeing that was a major campaign issue for recently-elected Starmer.
Though the company will be free to make its own decisions, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, will prepare and lay before Parliament a statement of strategic priorities for the company. He could also give directions to the firm following a similar parliamentary procedure.
“The first test of GB Energy and its partnership with the Crown Estate will be in this year’s CfD auction,” said Sam Hollister, head of energy economics, policy and investment at consultants LCP Delta. “With zero offshore wind procured last year, the industry and the UK’s decarbonization ambitions are playing catch-up.”
LCP Delta estimates that the UK must procure 15 gigawatts of capacity in the next two auctions to reach a 55 gigawatt target. Earlier this year, LCP Delta estimated that the current budget would only lead to 4-6 gigawatts of capacity at the next auction.
Great British Energy is receiving £8.3 billion of taxpayer money to own and operate assets in collaboration with the private sector. By allowing borrowing, the government believes 20-30 gigawatts of new offshore wind seabed leases can be secured by 2030.
--With assistance from Alex Morales.
ScottishPower boss hopes to double UK energy investment by 2030
Alex Daniel, PA Business Reporter
Sat, July 27, 2024
ScottishPower’s boss has said he hopes to double the firm’s investments in UK energy projects to as much as £24 billion if Labour’s policy changes pay off.
Chief executive Keith Anderson said ScottishPower has a spending programme of £12 billion in the years to 2028, but that he would “love to double that by the time we get to 2030”.
Though he stopped short of committing the funding, he told the PA news agency: “If the Government can halve the time it takes to get projects through planning, I’ll double the amount I invest in this country.
“The Government wants to get clean power by 2030, it wants to quadruple offshore wind by 2030.
“To get there, companies need to double the amount that they invest in (the UK), and that’s what we want to do.”
ScottishPower supplies energy to 4.4 million homes and businesses, builds onshore and offshore wind farms and runs vast tracts of the power grid across Scotland, and parts of England and Wales.
The money would go towards green energy projects such as putting up more wind turbines, he said, as well as improving the size and scope of the grid, which is expected to come under strain because of the shift to renewables.
As well as being an energy supplier, ScottishPower builds wind farms and runs parts of the power grid (Gareth Fuller/PA)
However, the plans hinge on whether Labour’s reforms to planning and energy policy bear fruit.
Earlier this month, energy secretary Ed Miliband scrapped a de facto ban on onshore wind farms, reversing planning measures brought in for England by the Conservatives in 2015 under David Cameron.
Onshore wind was treated differently from other developments under the rules, which stopped schemes going ahead if there were any objections.
Mr Anderson said: “If we can build a project in two years then it shouldn’t be sitting in the planning system for any more than two years. Right now these projects can sit there for over seven years.
“The Government is saying they are focused on accelerating projects through that system, and that’s exactly what we want to see.”
Labour said on Thursday that it will also partner with the monarchy’s property firm, the Crown Estate, which owns the UK’s seabeds, to help speed up investment and building of offshore wind farms, through its new state-owned energy company GB Energy.
Business groups urged the Government to give more detail on how the partnership would work in practice, to assuage concerns that GB Energy could act as a competitor and impede firms’ plans to invest.
Dan McGrail, chief executive of energy business group RenewableUK, said it is “vital that (GB Energy) doesn’t disrupt the billions of pounds of private investment the Government will need to deliver their clean power ambitions, so the next steps of its development will have to be formed in close partnership with the sector”.
Speaking before the GB Energy announcement, Mr Anderson said he is “optimistic” after seeing Sir Keir Starmer speak at a gathering of business leaders in the garden of 10 Downing Street on Wednesday.
“Whether that’s at the reception (on Wednesday), or at some of the other meetings we’ve been at over the last 10 days with the Government, there is a very positive atmosphere that things are going to change, that we’re going to work together and that we’re going to get this economic growth.”
A complicating factor is that it is ultimately a decision for his bosses at Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, which owns ScottishPower and also has subsidiaries across the Americas.
Mr Anderson said: “We compete for capital as a country, alongside Spain, America, Brazil and Mexico because we’re investing in lots of different countries.
“The faster I can get projects through the (planning) process, the more I can compete and accelerate the amount of capital I can get hold of.”
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