POLICY & FINANCE | NEW NUCLEAR UK
Labour and the UK’s energy agenda
Winning a landslide victory in the election the UK’s new government
has an opportunity to put clean energy – and nuclear with it – at the heart of national energy policy. The ambition is clear, the route to its achievement less so
THE UK’S ELECTION HAS RESULTED in a powerful Labour government with an overall majority – and to spare - that will enable it to carry out its legislative programme. What might that mean for the UK’s nuclear programme? It is clear that energy will be a key theme of the new
government. The Labour Party said in its campaign that it wants to be a “missions-driven government” and named energy as the second of its five missions. It wants to “Make Britain a clean energy superpower to cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero.” Labour also had energy high on “six steps for change” kicking off its term. They include setting up Great British Energy, described as a “publicly-owned clean power company, to cut bills for good and boost energy security, paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants”. The UK has already set up Great British Nuclear to deliver its next nuclear power plant and it seems the new energy company will work alongside it, but how they will interact is not yet clear. The mission of Great British Energy itself is not yet explicit either, although it is known that it will be capitalised at £8.3bn (US$10.5bn) over the parliament five-year term. So far Labour has said the new company will partner with industry and trade unions to co-invest in
“leading technologies” and it will help support capital- intensive projects, creating jobs and building supply chains in the UK. Over £3bn (US$3.8bn) of that capital will support local energy production. According to its pre-election manifesto, the clean
energy mission is comprehensive. To deliver it, Labour says it will work with the private sector to double onshore wind, triple solar power and quadruple offshore wind by 2030. It promises to invest in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, marine energy and make sure there is long-term energy storage. As regards nuclear power, Labour’s energy mission “will end a decade of dithering that has seen the Conservatives duck decisions” but initially the main aspects of the nuclear programme are very familiar: extending the life of existing plants and getting Hinkley Point C “over the line”. On new nuclear stations beyond Hinkley Point C, including Sizewell C and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), it says they “will play an important role in helping the UK achieve energy security and clean power while securing thousands of good, skilled jobs”. It does not offer a framework for delivery, but the outgoing government had been building such as framework, with a series of subsidies and guarantees for investors in new plant
Above: New UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer leads a government with a robust mandate to deliver clean energy Photo credit: Michael Tubi/
Shutterstock.com
32 | August 2024 |
www.neimagazine.com
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