The UK is shooting for the moon on clean energy at long last
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Christmas came early for energy nerds with the arrival of a dense 136-page document detailing how the UK government plans to decarbonize the nation’s electricity supply by 2030.
There will inevitably be complaints and some details are hazy. But this long-awaited work demonstrates that there’s finally a government in power in London that’s actually serious about the clean power mission.
The UK’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan covers a lot of ground, all in the pursuit of three goals: achieving energy security, spurring new growth industries and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It starts with a precise definition of ‘clean power,’ in keeping with the National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) characterization that said clean power should cover 100% of electricity demand by 2030, in a year with average weather conditions.
However, the NESO also left room for unabated gas to pick up the slack during periods of cold, windless and cloudy weather— or dunkelflaute, as Germans call it, specifying that at least 95% of the electricity generated within the country’s borders should come from low-carbon sources. This had been (unfairly) characterized by much of the media as a U-turn when Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Party mentioned the 95% figure in a speech at the start of December, with critics pointing to a policy document that had said the UK would run on “100% clean and cheap power." But, as analysts point out, that is consistent with the target for clean power to meet 100% of demand, and Labour’s manifesto referred to a “strategic reserve of gas power." Keen eyes may spot a watering down of offshore wind targets to somewhere between 43-50 gigawatts (GW) from the manifesto pledge of
. Read more on livemint.com
