Great British Energy Teams Up with Crown Estate for New Renewables Project

The UK Government has announced a partnership between Great British Energy and the Crown Estate to roll out a new offshore wind farm, expected to see up to 30 GW (gigawatts) of power by 2030; enough to power almost 20 million homes.

This is the first major plan revealed by Great British Energy, the government’s new company aimed at increasing renewable energy and expected to receive £8.3 bn in state funding over the next 5 years.  

Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said: “This innovative partnership between Great British Energy and the Crown Estate is an important step toward our mission for clean energy by 2030, and bringing down energy bills for good. This agreement will drive up to £60bn in investment into the sector, turbocharging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families and business.”

The Crown Estate has a £16 bn portfolio of land and seabed, operating independently whilst returning its profits to the government.  The deal with the Crown Estate means that the monarchy’s land and property business will lease the land on which windfarms can be developed and built, primarily along a seabed stretching up to 12 nautical miles from the mainland.

Ministers hope it will help to make progress towards achieving their goal of cutting energy bills at home, as well as helping the UK to become more self-sufficient when it comes to power. Energy security and net zero secretary Ed Miliband claimed investments in windfarms as well as other renewables such as solar energy is “going to lead to lower bills over the parliament.“ He told the Today programme: “Millions of people around our country have suffered from the worst energy bills crisis in decades and the only answer to never again is to get off fossil fuels.”

Labour’s hope is that GB Energy, a key manifesto pledge, will reduce UK “over-reliance” on fossil fuels and GB Energy will be “at the heart of the government’s mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.” They have added that the company will take stakes in energy projects to help speed them up, including giving a boost to technologies including carbon capture and storage, which has yet to be deployed at scale, along with hydrogen, wave and tidal energy.

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Sources

https://news.sky.com/story/great-british-energy-to-team-up-with-crown-estate-to-develop-new-offshore-wind-farms-13184324

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crglp32zzw2o

https://renews.biz/94718/gb-energy-crown-estate-launch-partnership