Purpose on Payday July 2024: A new dawn for UK green energy?

4 July now seems like a long time ago – especially looking at UK energy policy. In the course of just a few weeks, the government has laid the groundwork for radically reshaping our renewable energy ecosystem.

From the announcement of the first partnership for the country’s new publicly owned energy company, Great British Energy, with Crown Estate; to the announcement that the next Contracts for Difference renewable energy auction round will see its budget increased to £1.5bn; to removing the de facto ban on onshore wind in England, it is fair to say that a lot has happened.

All might not be plain sailing, however. Labour still has hugely ambitious green energy targets – including decarbonising electricity by 2030. Achieving these milestones will be a significant challenge, and there will be a lot of obstacles on the way. Some of these are regulatory – the government needs to work out what it wants to do with the last government’s unfinished Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA), for example.

Others will be far more political.  A lot of excitement greeted Energy Security and Net-Zero Secretary Ed Miliband’s approval of three major new solar projects in the first week of the new government. However, problems with local ‘NIMBY’ issues remain at these and other key potential renewable energy generation and infrastructure sites. It is also possible that these decisions could be challenged through a judicial review.

It is clear that the new Labour government is going to face a tough battle to balance two very different philosophies of ‘green’. The government’s messaging is very much focused on building new green energy plant and achieving net zero targets. Those who object to this new infrastructure potentially changing the natural environment in their local areas, including some in both the Conservative and Green parties, are thinking about the environment and green issues in a very different way from the government. How Labour approaches this challenge in their early months of government will be an important test for the Prime Minister’s ‘builders not blockers’ agenda.