Will Labour’s energy plans work?
Labour’s ambitious plan for zero-carbon power by 2030 raises legitimate questions – which we’ll come to shortly – but the commentary in rightwing newspapers is bizarrely wide of the mark.
Perhaps the strangest was a Daily Telegraph editorial that claimed Labour’s plan “would make the country more dependent on imported gas, not less”. As should be obvious, the opposite is true.
The UK used 254 terawatt hours (TWh) of gas last year to generate 123TWh of electricity, 40% of the national total. Under Labour’s plan, gas demand for electricity would be 97% lower by 2030.
(Why does it take 254TWh of gas to make 123TWh of electricity? Simply because burning fossil fuels is inefficient and half of the energy in the gas is wasted at the power station.)
The UK’s low-carbon electricity sources are already saving huge amounts of gas: In 2022 to date, nuclear and renewables have generated 129TWh, more than the 95TWh we got from gas.
The Daily Telegraph editorial echoed comments made by the likes of Darren Grimes and Julia Hartley-Brewer, who complained that we “can’t rely on solar or wind to keep our lights on”.
Similarly, while interviewing the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg asked if fossil fuels would still be needed as backup in 2030, pointing to low wind output last Friday.
Elsewhere, the Daily Mail said Starmer had been “forced to backtrack” by “admit[ting]” fossil fuels might still be used as backup under his 2030 plan.
This was not so much an admission as a reiteration: Labour’s own press release had said it would “maintain … a strategic reserve of backup gas power”, as well as a range of other sources.
Indeed, Labour’s plan does not rely on wind and solar alone. The hour-by-hour electricity system modelling
Read more on theguardian.com
