Prime Minister Kier Starmer and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband have announced the first major partnership between Great British Energy and The Crown Estate to unleash billions of investments in clean power.
Today, the Great British Energy Bill has been introduced to enable a company owned by the British people, delivering for the British people. As part of the Labour Party’s promises in the election, it is now delivering on making Britain a clean energy superpower. This is backed with £8.3bn of new money for Parliament to own and invest in clean power projects in regions across the UK.
What will the partnership mean?
The partnership will boost Britain’s energy independence by investing in homegrown power, and with accompanying reforms to policy, cut the time it takes to get offshore wind projects operating and delivering power to homes by up to half.
This partnership will see the public sector taking on a new role undertaking additional early development work for offshore wind projects. This will ensure that future offshore wind development has lower risk for developers, enabling projects to build out faster after leasing and crowding in private sector investment. It will also help boost new technologies such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, wave and tidal energy.
The Crown Estate, which has a £16bn portfolio of land and seabed, operates independently and returns its profits to the government, brings long-established expertise to the partnership, and new investment and borrowing powers recently announced by government.
The Crown Estate estimates this partnership will lead to up to 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments reaching seabed lease stage by 2030, enough power for the equivalent of almost 20 million homes.
Speaking on BBC 2 this morning, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “This innovative partnership between Great British Energy and the Crown Estate is an important step toward our mission for clean energy by 2030 and bringing down energy bills for good.”
Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Great British Energy comes from a simple idea – that the British people should own and benefit from our natural resources. Investing in clean power is the route to end the UK’s energy insecurity, and Great British Energy will be essential in this mission.”
So, what does this mean for the manufacturing industry?
The new partnership will have many positive benefits for Britain and the manufacturing sector.
An increased demand for components related to wind turbines, solar panels and other clean energy technologies providing an opportunity for UK manufacturers to become key suppliers in the supply chains. In turn, this will also lead to expansion of the companies building these, job creation and the demand for upskilling programmes to meet new requirements.
Existing infrastructure will also require facility upgrades to meet increased production demands. There is potential for government to offer support or incentives to manufacturers to want to modernise operations to aid in the support of the partnership.
Overall, the partnership plans to provide enhanced economic stability due to reduced energy costs and increased energy security. The manufacturing sector will also benefit from a more stable and predictable energy supply and pricing.
