The energy secretary is to set out the government’s “clean power 2030” plan on Friday, including measures to boost the UK’s renewable energy…reports Asian Lite News
Ed Miliband has pledged to bring in “the most ambitious reforms to the country’s energy system in generations” as he presses ahead with plans to accelerate the development of onshore windfarms in England.
The energy secretary is to set out the government’s “clean power 2030” plan on Friday, including measures to boost the UK’s renewable energy supply such as building canopies of solar panels on outdoor car parks. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says the proposals will generate £40bn a year from the private sector.
Energy industry and environmental groups broadly welcomed the plan, with the latter urging the government against investing in carbon capture projects at the expense of supporting renewable energy development.
Ministers want to wean the country off its dependence on fossil fuels, which was laid bare when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused British energy bills to soar to record highs. Among the measures covered by the plan was confirmation that onshore windfarms will be brought back into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project regime in England, which streamlines planning processes for important and large scale projects.
This would make it easier to progress onshore farms larger than 100MW, which in some cases require hundreds of acres of land. The government will launch a call for evidence on car park solar panel canopies next year, and also said there was significant scope to install solar panels on warehouse and factory roofs, with 20% of the UK’s biggest warehouses potentially providing up to 15GW of solar capacity.
The plans come as low wind and solar power generation forced Britain to rely heavily on burning gas and wood pellets. As of Thursday, about 65% of Britain’s electricity was being generated from gas and biomass, with just 5.3% coming from wind.
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