The UK officially confirmed on Thursday that, to ensure the country’s energy security and independence, while also moving more rapidly to achieving net-zero carbon emissions energy, it was going to particularly prioritise the development of new nuclear and offshore wind generation capacity. Hydrogen and solar power sources were not being forgotten, and, in the short- and medium-term, domestic oil and gas production would not be neglected.
The government would immediately set up a new agency, Great British Nuclear, backed by “substantial funding”, to facilitate the launch of new nuclear projects. A £120-million Future Nuclear Enabling Fund would be launched this month. The aim was to have 24 GW of nuclear capacity by 2050, or some 25% of the country’s predicted electricity demand for that year. Currently, nuclear provided about 16% of the UK’s electricity.
Assuming technological readiness, small modular reactors would be a “key part” of this programme. But it included large reactors as well. The intent was to construct up to eight large reactors, at a rate equivalent to one a year, instead of, as before, one a decade.
As for offshore wind, the target was now to reach a capacity of 50 GW by 2050. (Currently, the UK’s offshore wind capacity was reported to be 10.4 GW.) Of this total, the ambition was that 5 GW would be provided by floating offshore wind farms, anchored in deeper waters around the country. “This will be underpinned by new planning reforms to cut the approval times for new offshore wind farms from 4 years to 1 year and an overall streamlining which will radically reduce the time it takes for new projects to reach construction stages while improving the environment,” said the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in its statement on the new policy.
(Onshore wind was very unpopular in the UK, on environmental and reliability grounds. Regarding this form of energy, BEIS stated that “[w]e will be consulting on developing partnerships with a limited number of supportive communities who wish to host new onshore wind infrastructure in return for guaranteed lower energy bills”.)
Regarding hydrogen, the policy included doubling the previous target, and achieving up to 10 GW of low carbon production capacity for this gas by 2030. At least half would come from green hydrogen production facilities, powered by excess offshore wind power. This hydrogen could be used for power as well as a fuel for the transport sector.
Concerning solar power, the country currently had capacity totalling 14 GW. The government would consult on the regulations regarding solar projects, especially on the rooftops of both commercial and domestic buildings. This could lead to a five-fold increase in the UK’s solar capacity by 2035.
Domestic UK production of oil and gas was still important, for energy security and to cover the transition to low-carbon energy production. The northern autumn this year would see the launch of a new licensing round for North Sea oil and gas projects.