Launch of publicly-owned clean energy champion

Following through with its manifesto pledge, the new Labour government has introduced the Great British Energy Bill which will see the launch of Great British Energy, a state-owned power company backed by £8.3 billion investment. It has also announced a new partnership with The Crown Estate, which is claimed to have the potential to leverage up to £60 billion of private investment into the UK’s drive for energy independence.

The Crown Estate has a £16 billion portfolio of land and seabed and estimates this partnership will lead to up to 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments, reaching seabed lease stage by 2030, and deliver enough power for the equivalent of almost 20 million homes.

The partnership will see the public sector undertaking additional early development work for offshore wind projects. This, says the government, will ensure that future offshore wind development has lower risk for developers, enabling projects to build out faster after leasing and crowding in private sector investment. It will also help boost new technologies such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, wave and tidal energy.

It comes as the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has published details of the company’s objective. Families across the country have suffered during the cost-of-living
crisis, as the UK’s over-reliance on fossil fuel markets was exploited by Putin. Great British Energy is part of the government’s plans for clean power by 2030, so families and businesses are never left vulnerable again to spiking global prices.

Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband says:  “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.”

Great British Energy will have five key functions:

• Project development – leading projects through development stages to speed up their delivery, whilst capturing more value for the British public
• Project investment – investing in energy projects alongside the private sector, helping get them off the ground
• Local Power Plan – supporting local energy generation projects through working with local authorities, combined authorities and communities
• Supply chains – building supply chains across the UK, boosting energy independence and creating jobs
• Great British Nuclear – exploring how Great British Energy and Great British Nuclear will work together, including considering how Great British Nuclear functions will fit with Great British Energy