The new British Energy Security Strategy outlines a number of new commitments, underpinned by the commitment for a fully decarbonised electricity system by 2035, and the new commitment that it will achieve 95% low-carbon by 2030. Below are some key areas in the strategy.
A large increase in low-carbon power generation is required to meet net zero and increase energy independence. The key technologies considered are:
A big winner in the strategy. The ambition has been increased to 50GW by 2030, up from the previous commitment of 40GW. To better enable this, there will be changes to planning reforms to cut the approval times for new offshore wind farms to enable these projects to be built quicker.
The government has committed to a huge increase in the level of solar capacity in this country, with it projected to increase by 5 times by 2035. The focus is rooftop solar, but there will be increased ground-mounted solar. As with offshore wind, there is a commitment to look at the planning rules for solar to ensure they are built as quickly as possible but in the optimal areas.
The government is to launch new funding to increase and accelerate the amount of new nuclear power stations, with an ambition of 24GW of nuclear by 2050. This will be a mixture of large scale nuclear plants (like the new plant being built at Hinkley Point C) and much smaller modular reactors.
The strategy addresses the reduction of dependence on Russian gas with two strands:
Firstly, this year the government will licence new North Sea gas projects, as UK-sourced gas is important for the energy transition – especially as producing gas in the UK has a lower carbon footprint than imported from abroad – and for energy security.
Secondly, the government doubled its ambition for low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030. The focus is on ‘green’ hydrogen e.g. hydrogen produced using renewable electricity. Hydrogen production enables the UK to move away from its reliance on natural gas, as well as enabling the UK power system to be flexible enough to manage the planned increase in renewable generation.
Finally, the government has committed to a comprehensive Review of GB Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA), with high-level options for reform set out this summer, to enable a fully decarbonised electricity system by 2035. This has the potential to result in substantial reforms to all current markets and revenue streams for customers. Centrica’s regulatory team is closely engaged with this review and will keep customers updated.
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