There are fewer than 2,000 days left until 2030. That means there are fewer than six years remaining to transform the UK’s energy system and transform our major economy. But that is the mission the new government has set: to achieve clean power by 2030.
It’s clear why it has set this target. The recent energy crisis cost the UK taxpayer an estimated £75bn on payments for wholesale gas. This money could have been used to fund public services and was instead shipped overseas to pay for expensive imported fossil fuel.
The energy crisis was a lesson in the costs of subcontracting energy security to others rather than building our own clean energy system. Every turbine we install in UK waters means we are less dependent on imported fossil fuels and the regimes that control those resources. And our position as an island with plentiful wind and rain means we have some of the best renewable resources in the world.
These resources can be unlocked by a highly skilled workforce with deep experience in energy because of our long history as a producer of oil and gas. If we get this right we can attract investment, boost economic growth, protect families and businesses from sharp price spikes, and create thousands of good jobs in communities across the UK.
So, what needs to happen to make clean power by 2030 possible? Two words: pace and policy. We need to act quickly to make the government’s new mission a reality, and doing so will require a clear policy regime in the process.
The UK has installed around 10 gigawatts of offshore wind in the past decade. To meet the 2030 target, we need to deploy a further 40 gigawatts in just over five years. That is delivering four times the capacity in half the time. This is not easy, especially without the urgent acceleration of planning and consenting processes, which are lengthy and no longer fit for purpose. The government has said reforms are forthcoming, but they cannot arrive quickly enough – and must be a priority across devolved administrations too.
But to be able to do this programme at pace, ensuring the right policy regime is in place is essential. Building all this clean-energy infrastructure will need tens of billions of pounds of private investment from the UK and overseas. Unsurprisingly, there is stiff competition for this capital. Others, including the US to the EU, are also prioritising the deployment of more and more clean energy.
The UK cannot outspend these economies, but we can out-manoeuvre them by being the easiest place in the world to invest.
This means providing policy stability, so investors aren’t put off by radical reforms to markets and an uncertain policy landscape. The current debate over so-called zonal pricing of electricity is a classic example of what often holds us back.
It stipulates that the single GB electricity market should be broken up into lots of different zones or markets – essentially, introducing a form of dynamic pricing to the system. This would take time and increase the risk for investors, therefore driving up the cost of building the infrastructure we need.
It makes sense, then, that clean-energy developers and manufacturers are opposed to it. This is important as it is an example of the kind of distraction policymakers need to avoid if we are to have any chance of delivering clean power by 2030.
Instead, we need to refine the focus on getting things done that has characterised previous administrations, particularly in the immediate postwar years. In the energy sector, this included the creation of hydro dams in the north of Scotland, bringing power from the glens.
In the postwar era, there was popular resistance to the construction of these hydro dams. Some feared it would impact the tourist industry. Today, many of those dams are tourist attractions in their own right and are often in demand as locations for Hollywood film-makers.
More importantly, the hydro dams in the north of Scotland are still fulfilling their core function of powering homes and businesses across the UK with renewable energy.
During the postwar era, the government was brave, and it got things done, benefiting future generations. Keir Starmer has talked about backing the “builders not the blockers”. If we are serious about delivering the clean-energy mission we need to turn those words into action urgently.
At SSE, we are investing more than £20bn in critical energy infrastructure by 2027 alone, building offshore wind farms, electricity networks and flexible power plants. And we want to be investing billions more.
In the process, we are creating and supporting tens of thousands of new, green jobs in energy and infrastructure. But it will take change across the sector for progress to be able to take shape. We cannot miss this once-in-a-generation opportunity to renew our infrastructure and generate good sustainable growth across the UK.
In order to do so, we must move quickly to create a clear policy agenda to secure success in achieving the government’s key goal of clean power by 2030. If we make the right choices in the coming months we can make this mission possible.
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