It’s time for the state to own and build things again in the name of the people, says energy security and net-zero secretary
Steven Swinford, Political Editor | Emma Powell
Wednesday July 24 2024, 8.40pm BST, The Times
Ed Miliband will say the state should “own and build things again” on behalf of the public as he announces plans for thousands of offshore wind turbines on sea bed owned by the Crown Estate.
The energy security and net-zero secretary is to announce plans for Great British Energy (GBE), Labour’s publicly owned energy company, to form a partnership with the Crown Estate, which owns swathes of Britain’s sea bed.
Under the plans, which represent an explicitly interventionist approach to encouraging economic growth and hitting net-zero targets, GBE will develop offshore wind farms with private companies and help push them through the planning process.
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The Crown Estate said that it would lease enough land for development to eventually produce 30GW of energy, sufficient to power 20 million homes. The UK currently produces less than half that amount, 14GW, through offshore wind.
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Labour’s offshore wind drive is likely to lead to a significant rise in revenues for the Crown Estate, which is in turn used to fund the sovereign grant that supports the official duties of the King and the royal family.
The monarchy receives 12 per cent of the profits of the Crown Estate with the rest given to the Treasury. The Crown Estate this week disclosed that it made record profits of £1.1 billion, leading to a 50 per cent rise in the sovereign grant from £86 million to £132 million.
Labour has already ended the ban on onshore wind turbines and given planning consent to more solar power than has been installed in the past year.
Ed Miliband said: “Other countries have also grasped the opportunities of investing in clean energy, but Britain is being left behind”
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Miliband said: “We already have public ownership of energy in this country, by foreign governments. The policy of this government is that it is time for the British people to also own things again and build things again.
“Other countries have also grasped the opportunities of investing in clean energy, but Britain is being left behind. We have tremendous advantages: from our long coastlines and shallow waters to our skilled energy workforce, with deep experience in offshore industries and cutting-edge technologies. The only thing that’s missing is a long-term plan to harness these significant assets.”
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On Thursday Labour will table two pieces of legislation to push through its green energy plans. The first will establish GBE, which will receive £8.3 billion of funding over the course of this parliament and be headquartered in Scotland. The second will give the Crown Estate new borrowing powers to help it invest more in preparing sea beds for companies to build offshore turbines.
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 £60 billion in investment into the sector, turbocharging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families and business.”
GBE will attempt to attract significant levels of private investment by reducing the risk for businesses. It will make joint investments in green projects and lead them through the early stages of development.
The government believes that the partnership could halve the amount of time between an offshore wind turbine being built and delivering electricity to homes. The process currently takes between ten and 15 years. Under the plans GBE and the Crown Estate will lead projects through the planning process before construction starts. They will work with the electricity systems operator, which manages the country’s electricity system, to secure connections and conduct technical and environmental surveys to speed up the development and approval processes.
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Officials will also look at how GBE could join forces with Great British Nuclear, a public body that helps bring forward new nuclear energy projects, and support local energy generation projects through partnerships with local councils.
Miliband is also expected to press ahead with a new generation of mini nuclear power plants, with plans to unveil reactor designs by September. Advocates of the technology say that factory-made standard designs will be far easier and cheaper to build than conventional plants. Given lower cooling demands, reactors which produce a third to a half as much power as large-scale plants may also be able to be built inland, using rivers and lakes or even cooling towers instead of sea water.
But the smaller prefabricated reactors are yet to be commercially deployed. Five companies submitted bids last week to a government competition aiming to get the technology operational by the end of the decade.