New UK government bets on green energy. Companies are wary.

livemint.com:

LONDON—As Britain’s oil and gas giants scale back their global green-energy ambitions, the U.K.’s newly elected government is launching a multibillion-dollar effort to regain the country’s place as a global pacesetter for clean energy. A new state-backed company, funded by increased taxes on oil and gas production, will invest in many renewable-energy projects around the country. Industry executives are split on whether the plan can meet the government’s ambitious goals.

Great British Energy has about £8.3 billion, or around $11 billion, to invest in renewable projects over the next five years. Its mandate is to speed up the adoption of green energy to help the government hit its target of decarbonizing the electricity grid by 2030. That would require an enormous build-out of renewables across Britain.

More than double the existing capacity of onshore wind, triple the solar power and nearly quadruple the offshore wind would be needed to hit the target, according to consulting firm Oxford Economics. Britain’s dependence on energy imports has left it vulnerable to supply shocks in recent years. When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to a surge in prices, it prompted calls in the U.K.

for the country to wean itself off foreign supplies, including by accelerating its green-energy plans. Britain generated 46% of its electricity from renewable sources last year, government figures show. “In an unstable world, the only way to guarantee our energy security and protect bill payers…is to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and towards homegrown clean energy," U.K.