Onshore wind and home insulation missing from energy strategy
The government has announced its long awaited energy security strategy, but it’s not the clean energy revolution it could and should have been.
Ahead of this announcement, we were calling for the ban on onshore wind to be overturned, real investment in insulation, and proper ambition for other renewables, to get the UK off fossil fuels as fast as possible.
Sadly, the government has not delivered the clean energy revolution the public wants.
What’s in the strategy?
Offshore wind
The strategy outlines an ambition to create 50GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
This is welcome, but it’s the bare minimum the government should be doing on clean energy, and represents a mere 10GW increase from existing targets.
Fossil fuels
The government has promised a new round of licensing for North Sea oil and gas over the summer, with support for new developments.
Just a few days ago, the IPCC warned us that any new fossil fuel infrastructure will take us over 2 degrees of warming. This makes a mockery of the government’s claim to lead on climate.
Nuclear
The backbone of the strategy is an announcement to provide 24GW of nuclear power by 2050.
The focus on nuclear is disappointing given that nuclear is twice the cost per unit of electricity as onshore wind, and will take decades to get on the grid. The most recent round of nuclear power was announced in 2010, and won’t be producing electricity until 2026 at the earliest.
This isn’t going to bring down bills or get off gas in the immediate term.
Treading water on solar
The announcement also boasted about job creation, with 10,000 new jobs in solar promised over the next six years. However, between 12,000 and 18,000 jobs in solar were lost in just 12 months under the Conservatives when they wrecked the sector in 2015.
This means that in 2028, we’ll still be catching up to where we were fifteen years previously. This isn’t the visionary energy policy the nation’s crying out for.
What’s not in the strategy?
Onshore wind
Early reports suggested that we could expect ambitious targets for onshore wind generation, and a scrapping of the planning laws which have effectively banned new projects in England since 2015.
Sadly, all we got was a vague promise to consult with local communities on new onshore wind projects. In practice this will probably mean a bit more onshore wind in Scotland, where planning laws are already more favourable to the technology
This is completely out of step with public opinion, with poll after poll showing that onshore wind is overwhelmingly popular, even among Conservative voters, and especially among people who already live near wind farms.
Energy efficiency
There was nothing new whatsoever on energy efficiency, which is an absolutely glaring omission, with the treasury reportedly blocking the expansion of plans to insulate homes.
Polling has shown that 84% percent of the public support home insulation as a way of getting off Russian gas - the single most popular measure polled. And we know it works. Taking a home from a D energy efficiency rating to a C will cut gas demand by 20%.
The door was wide open to start cutting energy demand literally overnight by getting on with a retrofitting revolution, but the government hasn’t said a single word about it.
Tidal
For those worrying about baseload power with renewables, powering the UK with our reliable and constant wave power is one answer. There was no mention of new investment for wave power.
What’s next?
We know that the best ways of bringing down bills while getting off gas are rapidly scaling up renewables and insulating our homes.
We’ll go on campaigning for onshore wind to be unblocked and for new clean heat solutions in our homes because we know the public is on our side, and we know that these common sense solutions will eventually be taken up.
If you want to join the movement calling for the clean energy revolution this country needs, sign up below to find out more about our campaigns.
We can win, but we can’t win without you.