The government has this morning (Friday 13 December) published its Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, which forms part of the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change. The plan sets outs the steps which government will take to move the UK to fully renewable electricity generation, including further steps on speeding up the planning process for major energy projects, including onshore windfarms; also in the plan are new powers for the energy regulator Ofgem to enable it to prioritise major renewable energy generation projects in the queue for connection to the country’s tranmission grid.
In response, Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission Sir John Armitt said:
“This Action Plan is a welcome step forward in setting out what needs to be done to ensure the UK can deliver clean power by 2030. It builds on our own assessment that a swift transition towards a fully renewable electricity system, while challenging, is not only possible but the right thing to do for billpayers, for clean growth and for a resilient economy.
“To achieve this, transformation will be needed across the sector – not only increased delivery of renewable generation, but rollout of the storage, network infrastructure and flexible generation that is essential for keeping power flowing whatever the weather.
“It is particularly encouraging to see the focus on streamlining the planning system and speeding up connections to the grid. These are critical enablers to the accelerated delivery that we need to see across the sector.
“The target is stretching, and there is no time to waste. It’s critical that government now makes quick progress in turning this ambitious plan into concrete action.”
The Commission’s second National Infrastructure Assessment, published in October 2023, recognised that the UK will need a reliable electricity system running mostly on renewable power and made a series of recommendations to government on the acceleration of onshore and offshore generation, the development of additional long and short term flexible energy storage, and upgrading the transmission grid, in order to achieve that, as well as action to reduce by half the planning consent times for major national infrastructure projects.
The Commission is currently undertaking a separate study looking at the changes that may be required in the design and operation of the electricity distribution grid to ensure that it can best support the UK’s net zero energy goals; this is due to be published in February 2025.
