6 2GM Friday April 8 2022 | the times
News
Families will not see lower energy bills
for three years from a plan launched
yesterday to end dependence on foreign
oil and gas, ministers acknowledge.
Boris Johnson said the government’s
energy security strategy would end
“blackmail” by autocrats such as Presi-
dent Putin while protecting households
against global price increases by gener-
ating more power in this country.
Experts praised the ambition for a
huge acceleration in green electricity,
but criticised the absence of energy effi-
ciency measures that would cut bills
faster after the Treasury vetoed more
spending on insulation and other home
improvements.
Planning law will be changed to allow
more solar panels on roofs and fields
while approval for offshore wind farms
will be cut to one year, compared with
up to ten at present, the strategy says.
However, Kwasi Kwarteng, the busi-
ness secretary, had to retreat from am-
bitions of tripling onshore wind capa-
city to 30GW because it was too politi-
cally controversial among Tory MPs.
The prime minister said there would
be a “very high bar” for new windfarms
onshore, saying: “People feel that they
affect the beauty of the countryside, I
totally understand that.”
After weeks of wrangling, Johnson
and Kwarteng overcame Rishi Sunak’s
reluctance to fund more nuclear
energy, with up to eight new plants to be
built by 2050 to produce a quarter of the
country’s power.
“We’re bringing nuclear home, with
one nuclear plant, one nuclear reactor,
every year for eight years, rather than
one a decade,” Johnson said. “This is
about tackling some of the mistakes of
the past and making sure that we are set
well for the future, we are never again
subject to the vagaries of the global oil
or gas price, we can’t be subject to black-
mail from people such as Vladimir Pu-
tin and we have energy security here.”
Johnson said the plan was a “mas-
sively green strategy” that would mean
95 per cent of electricity would be low-
carbon by 2030 and there would be
enough offshore wind to power every
home. Officials stressed the goal was
longer-term energy independence,
with the chancellor’s rebate package in
place for short-term pressures. Sources
denied that streamlining planning for
power plants, big solar arrays and off-
shore wind farms would damage envi-
ronmental protections.
“This is not watering down public
consent. The single biggest barrier is
government and it’s about the bureau-
cratic and burdensome approval
system,” they said. “When gas prices in-
crease by 500 per cent it naturally fo-
cuses the mind on what more govern-
ment can do.”
Kwarteng said “nobody can guaran-
tee” the effect on prices but that “the
impact could be very soon”. Asked by
Times Radio when families would see
an effect on bills, he said: “By soon, I
mean, three or four years. It’s much
cheaper to generate offshore wind to-
day than it was even just five years ago.
So some of these benefits can happen
quite quickly. But we need to start the
planning process and the strategy now.”
Labour accused the government of
failing to deal with a cost of living crisis,
with Ed Miliband, the shadow climate
change secretary, said: “Kwarteng
wanted to double onshore wind. He’s
now backed off, not because of a change
of mind about energy policy, but
because Boris Johnson is essentially too
weak to overcome his backbenchers.”
Strategy has nothing to say on energy
efficiency, leading article, page 31
Critics blow cold, Business, page 35
After weeks of Whitehall wrangling
over costs, a 7,500-word energy secur-
ity strategy was finally published yes-
terday, aiming to make Britain energy-
independent. Boris Johnson said the
UK had “drifted into dependence on
foreign sources” through years of
“policy fudges, decision-dodging and
short-term thinking”. The plan, he said,
promised cheaper, greener power
“made in Britain” that protected con-
sumers from the vagaries of global sup-
ply and the whims of foreign dictators.nuclear
Johnson boasted of “bringing nuclear
home” with an ambition to approve
eight new reactors in the next decade
and ensure a quarter of our energy
comes from nuclear power by 2050.
The prime minister’s desire to triple
nuclear capacity led to repeated delays
in the strategy as he battled RishiPromise of greener
power made in UK
Chris Smyth, Ben Webster Sunak, the chancellor, over the cost of
one of the more expensive forms of
energy.
With a final decision on a Sizewell C
plant already expected in this parlia-
ment, the goal of two further approvals
in the next parliament does not commit
the chancellor to finding any more cash
until the next spending review.
Great British Nuclear is being
created as a new government vehicle to
usher projects to completion, with a
new reactor at Wylfa on Anglesey in
Wales expected to be among the first
decisions. The eight projects are
expected to be split between traditional
big reactors and newer small modular
reactors yet to be used commercially.onshore wind
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secre-
tary, lost a battle with cabinet col-
leagues over relaxing planning rules to
at least double onshore wind by 2030.
The strategy states: “We will not intro-duce wholesale changes to current
planning regulations for onshore
wind.”
Onshore turbines are one of the
quickest and cheapest ways of increas-
ing power supply and government
surveys show that about three quarters
of people support them.
However, rules brought in in 2015
prevent wind turbines from being built
in England unless the local community
wants them. The strategy sets no target
for onshore wind, instead saying there
will be consultation this year on
“developing local partnerships for a
limited number of supportive commu-
nities who wish to host new onshore
wind infrastructure in return for
benefits”. The hope is this will mean dis-
counts of 20-50 per cent.
Michael Grubb, professor of energy
and climate change at University
College London, said the government’s
failure to support onshore wind was a
“cowardly failure”.offshore wind
The strategy sets an “ambition” of 50
gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by
2030, up from about 10GW now and an
advance on the previous target for the
end of the decade of 40GW. It also com-
mits to accelerate the planning process
to more than halve the time it takes (upto 13 years) to deliver offshore wind
farms. The requirement to assess the
impact on wildlife habitat will be re-
viewed to reduce “reams of paperwork”.
Officials say offshore wind will be the
“workhorse” of Britain’s future energy
production, with enough capacity to
power every home in Britain.solar
The government wants a fourfold in-
crease in solar capacity to 70GW by
2035, up from 14GW now.
This will come from encouraging
panels on roofs and fields, with a “radi-
cally simplified” planning process for
solar on homes and a “presumption”
that new buildings will have solar pan-
els or other forms of renewable energy.oil and gas
For all the lofty ambitions on green
energy, the strategy acknowledges that
even by 2050 we will still be using
significant amounts of gas. “Gas is cur-
rently the glue that holds our electricity
system together and it will be an impor-
tant transition fuel,” it acknowledges.
To reduce dependence on imports,
Johnson wants more oil and gas ex-
tracted from UK reserves in the North
Sea and more licences issued to get
“more domestic gas on the grid sooner”.
Carbon capture and storage isNews Energy
Households face three-year wait
Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor Current proportion of UK electricity generation
Wind
CURRENT
21.1%TARGET
Increase offshore wind
capacity by 4.8x (380%)Nuclear
CURRENT
15.3%TARGET
25% of our
consumption by 2050CURRENT
4.1%TARGET
Five times more by
2035 (14GW - 70GW)Solar
Gas
CURRENT
Proportion of total
UK electricity generation
40.1%TARGET
Reduce gas consumption by
over 40 per cent by 2030GasWindNuclearOtherSolarOilCoalHydropower40.1%21.1%15.3%12.8%4.1%2.8%
2%1.8%CURRENT
2.8%TARGET
All oil-fired power due
to end by Oct 2030Oil
CURRENT
2%TARGET
All coal-fired power due
to end by Oct 2024Coal
CURRENT
1.8%Hydropower
TARGET
N/A