King to help lead UK’s clean energy revolution that will generate power for up to 20m homes
KING Charles will help lead a clean energy revolution in Britain that is set to create enough power for nearly 20 million homes.
Great British Energy is a newly created state-owned company, that will partner with the monarchy’s property firm to help speed up the building of offshore wind farms.
The Crown Estate owns the vast majority of Britain’s seabed, stretching up to 12 nautical miles from the mainland, and leases parts of it to wind farm operators.
It is estimated the partnership will lead to new offshore wind sites being leased by 2030.
Prime Minister Sir 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.
“This agreement will drive up to £60billion in investment into the sector, turbo-charging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families.
“My mission-led government is rolling up our sleeves to deliver for Britain.”
The Crown Estate already had plans to deliver 30 gigawatts of renewable offshore wind off the coast of England and Wales by 2030. But it has now partnered with the Labour government’s GB Energy scheme “to unleash billions of investment in clean power”.
This includes building more offshore wind farms and pumping money into new technologies such as carbon capture and storage, plus hydrogen, wave and tidal energy.
Projects
It is unclear how much of the £8.3billion of taxpayers’ money used for the energy firm will go towards this initiative, which is expected to rake in £60billion of private investment.
GB Energy is set to lead energy projects through development stages to speed up the process, before returning them to private ownership but maintaining a stake.
The Crown Estate has a £16billion portfolio of land and seabed, and returns its profits to the Government, a small portion of which goes to the monarchy.
Much of its £1.1billion profit last year came from offshore wind projects and it is already engaged in a significant push to find and develop new plots of the seabed for companies to build wind turbines on.
But last year, King Charles asked for profits from the Crown Estate’s wind farm deals to be used for the “wider public good” rather than as extra funding for the monarchy.
The Crown Estate belongs to the King “in right of the Crown” but it is not his private property.
This development marks the second major announcement from Labour on energy since coming into power earlier this month.
Ed Miliband had announced the lifting of an onshore wind ban within days of entering government.
The Energy Secretary and former party leader did this by removing two planning barriers announced by David Cameron in 2015. Mr 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.
“The agreement with the Crown Estate will lead to more investment, cleaner power, more energy security and is a statement of intent that it will be a permanent and transformative institution for our country.”
The legislation to create GB Energy will be introduced at Westminster today.
Superpower
Labour has vowed to create a publicly owned energy generation company headquartered in Scotland to drive the Government’s goal of making the UK a “clean energy superpower”.
The exact location of the HQ will be revealed “soon”, the Government said.
In a separate Bill, the Crown Estate is set to be given new borrowing powers, confirmed in last week’s King’s Speech, which are designed to help it invest more in preparing its seabeds for offshore wind sites and other projects.
Under current rules, the estate cannot use its cash reserves to invest because it must hold them against the prospect of future financial losses.
Crown Estate chief executive Dan Labbad said: “The Crown Estate exists to serve the national interest, including stewarding our natural resources to deliver a decarbonised, energy secure and sustainable future.
“With new powers and by partnering with government, we can drive greater investment into this future for our country, and with it support nature recovery and job creation.”
Dale Vince, green industrialist and founder of Ecotricity, said: “Great British Energy is simply a great idea – public ownership of our own renewable energy, for the good of the entire country.
“For too long we’ve allowed private, mostly foreign, interests to reap the benefits and then allowed foreign markets to set the price we buy the energy back for – some kind of free market madness that.
“Great to see the Government pick this up and run with it.”
But Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said: “The public has been sold a lie that a Labour Government will cut their energy bills by £300. Now they’ve won the election they’ve tried to brush that figure under the carpet, showing us the truth that GB Energy is nothing but a gimmick that will end up costing families, not cutting bills.”
THE dream of limitless clean affordable energy has roared closer. Offshore wind farms that will be able to power nearly 20 million homes are going be constructed through a partnership between state-owned Great British Energy and the Crown Estate – the owner of most of Britain’s seabed.
The conflict in Ukraine demonstrates why Britain must not remain dependent upon energy imported from unstable parts of the world. Autocrats and extremists must not be allowed to turn off the lights in our homes or halt production in factories.As well as offshore wind farms, it is hoped we will see exciting developments in wave, tidal and hydrogen energy, and carbon capture and storage.The future really will be brighter.