It is one of five “missions” that the new British Labour government has set itself to, in the words of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, contribute to “rebuild the foundations” of the United Kingdom, weakened by fourteen years of Conservative power. The leader wants to achieve by 2030 a national energy consumption coming 100% from green energies (wind, solar, nuclear mainly). An extremely ambitious objective – a little too much, according to some experts –, which involves a first flagship measure, debated Thursday, September 5 in the House of Commons: the creation of the public company Great British Energy (GB Energy).
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Ed Miliband, former Labour leader and now Energy Minister, defended in the House of Commons the second reading of the law establishing the creation of what is similar to a large public investment fund, and should be endowed with 8.3 billion pounds sterling coming partly from a tax on the profits of oil and gas groups. This fund is supposed to attract private investment, by co-financing projects in emerging technologies (hydrogen, CO capture2floating wind farms, tidal energy) or by investing directly in now proven technologies: solar, wind, land and marine.
Ed Miliband promises that GB News will eventually help cut Britain’s energy bills by hundreds of pounds a year and contribute to the country’s energy independence by reducing its reliance on gas and buying shares in wind farms based in the country’s territorial waters. Today, around 45% of these are owned by foreign companies. “Do you realise that the city of Munich has more assets in UK energy than the UK government itself? GB Energy is not going to become EDF overnight but it will create jobs and increase our country’s energy security”Ed Miliband said on Thursday.
Strong signals for clean electricity
The country has already come a long way: ten years ago, almost 40% of its electricity was generated by coal. Today, it only contributes 1% to the electricity mix. On September 30, the country’s last coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, will close its doors for good. The share of electricity produced without fossil fuels has increased from less than 20% in 2010 to almost 50% in 2020. The 2030 target still requires a doubling of onshore wind capacity, a tripling of solar capacity and a quadrupling of offshore wind – to reach a production of 60 gigawatts (GW).
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