Community Energy England today says in a statement that it believes the party’s plans published yesterday “have the potential to transform Britain’s energy system through local action on climate which benefits local people”.

Labour’s promises unveiled yesterday back the party’s earlier pledges towards local energy. They include making targeted energy grants to local authorities from a £600 million pot, and low interest loans made direct to community groups from a pool of £400 million.

The party’s manifesto for 4 July declares “Local power generation is an essential part of the energy mix and reduces pressures on the transmission grid. Labour will deploy more distributed production capacity through our Local Power Plan. Great British Energy will partner with energy companies, local authorities, and co-operatives to install thousands of clean power projects, through a combination of onshore wind, solar, and hydropower projects.

“We will invite communities to come forward with projects, and work with local leaders and devolved governments to ensure local people benefit directly from this energy production.”

In its statement Community Energy England endorses probable energy secretary Ed Miliband’s view that such backing can “kick-start thousands of transformational local energy project”.

“Labour’s Local Power Plan offers grants for local authorities and low interest loans for community energy organisations to do new local, community-led and owned clean energy projects“, the CEE’s statement says.

“Over five years, this could deliver 8 gigawatts of solar and onshore wind – the equivalent of 2.5 nuclear power stations – enough to power 4.35 million homes”.

CEE chief executive Emma Bridge went on, “We welcome the Labour manifesto’s plan to grow our fantastic community energy sector and unlock huge benefits for local people.

“Community energy projects deliver 12 to 13 times the benefit of commercial energy installations. So they are uniquely suited to engage local people to participate in the energy transformation. Labour’s Local Power Plan is a win, win, win for communities, local economies and the country,” said Bridge

In 2021, the Environmental Audit Committee advised the government that “due to the urgency of the climate crisis and the vital roles communities will have to play in reaching net zero, it is essential… to support the long-term growth of community energy across the UK.” Chris Skidmore MP in his Review of the Government’s Net Zero Policies recommended that the government “turbocharge community energy.”

“The Labour manifesto and their Local Power Plan demonstrate that the party understands that empowering people and communities to take local climate action, which will also benefit local people, is essential to achieving net zero.

“We are pleased to see real backing for community energy in the Liberal Democrat and Green manifestos too”, noted Bridge.

“All parties with plans to meet the scale of the climate challenge share the consensus that community energy is crucial for any serious climate policy programme.

“We are disappointed that the Conservative manifesto, despite stretching to 80 pages, does not mention community energy at all. The Conservatives’ manifesto doubles down on commitments to invest more in fossil fuels, including new gas power stations, while continuing to block renewable energy developments”.

Bridge says restrictions on new onshore wind turbines have effectively stopped new ones being built in England, with just a handful of new turbines being built per year.  The Conservatives’ programme as set out in its manifesto would slow down progress towards net zero and cement our dependence on fossil fuels for years to come”.

Personal voting intentions differ among CEE officials, as influenced by the parties’ varying stances in relation to the burgeoning co-operative sector.

This week CEE policy manager Duncan Law shared with a public meeting of south London co-op SE24 Community Energy his intention to vote Green, due to their support for local, accountable actions in response to the climate emergency.

Former Conservative energy minister Chris Skidmore last week told a London solar conference that he was ‘politically homeless’, after he resigned his Bristol seat last year in disappointment at the Sunak’s administration’s foot-dragging over green issues.   The West County former MP told delegates that the future of energy is local, citing the achievements of co-ops such as Bath and West Community Energy.

Outside the activities of its volunteer-run co-operatives, today’s CEE statement welcomes Labour’s pledge to double onshore wind capacity by 2030. It notes that new onshore turbines in England have been held back since David Cameron’s Conservatives introduced a de facto ban nine years ago.

Interest declared:  The present author has for several years invested in and volunteered for several community energy co-ops across London and the South East.

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Included in its electoral demands issued today, trade body SolarEnergyUK says a new administration should establish and share its roadmap for solar generation within 100 days of taking office.

Britain needs in short a government that fully embraces solar “so we can reap the benefits for our economy, people and environment”, in the words of chief  executive Chris Hewett, pictured.

Rescued from limbo, the body believes, must be 15 months of detailed output from an industry-government Solar Taskforce, convened in spring 2023.  With an initial brief to speed more arrays on commercial roofs, the taskforce’s remit quickly expanded to cover detailed work in areas such as developing solar’s UK supply chain & better trade skills.

Confusion was thrown on the Taskforce’s work first by the resignation of energy minister Graham Stuart in April, then by Sunak’s surprise election call last month.

As next year dawns,  the UK will have about 20GW of solar generation capacity in place, supplemented by 8GW of big batteries.  By 2030, Britain needs 50GW of solar , plus 30GW of zero-carbon energy storage, the lobbying group believes.

Those numbers are in line both with the Sunak administration’s target of 70GW of generating PV arrays  by 2035 and the National Infrastructure Commission’s recommendation of 60GW of short-term flex by 2035.

According to SolarEnergyUK’s manifesto, steps to deliver them must include ;

Embracing UK solar

Private investors including from overseas are willing to fund  UK solar and storage at all scales, the group believes. But deterrents persist, which only government leadership can remove.

Resolving Britain’s inconsistent planning regime is among them, as is joined-up thinking on too-fragmented current relationships between energy security, food security and restoring nature.

“We do not have to choose one over the other,” says the manifesto.

Consistency in planning decisions is also key.   Officials Failing to respect established national policy has led to more refusals for solar being overturned more than any other kind of development, wasting private and public money, and needlessly extending the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Rooftop solar power is hugely popular, the PV advocates claim. Over 1.5m small  solar installations sit on homes, businesses and community buildings, almost half of them installed after the end of subsidies in 2019.

But poor households, and community activists investing in solar on local public buildings & schools look to be missing out at present, says SEUK.

Building standards need urgent overhaul, and peer-to-peer energy trading must be enabled to allow schools, community projects and businesses to buy and sell power locally.

Congested distribution & transmission networks mean solar farms are built quickly but languish for far longer as they wait for a grid connection. The effect is to delay ground-mounted and roof-mounted commercial arrays, as well as grid-facing batteries.  Without radical improvements, Net Zero by 2035 could be in danger, the blueprint warns.

Ofgem must solving this problem by improving service from grid operators, including by compelling them to release data on local usage and upgrades.

The skills needed for British green jobs is another topic requiring immediate attention by  D-ESNZ chiefs.

Renewables is the engine for a decade-long jobs boom.   But the route to a just transition which retrains workers mid-career or brings on school-leavers is not as clear as it should be

Incoming ministers should work with solar practitioners, says SEUK,  setting up with a chain of regional training centres to promote career opportunities.

While it’s probably not economic to make solar arrays in Britain, SolarEnergyUK says there’s a case for Whitehall to foster manufacturing of switchgear, cabling, batteries and mounting systems.

On inward investment, the manifesto warns Britain must not fall in attractiveness behind the EU, US, China, India and other emerging supplier nations. Ensuring that solar and energy storage has a level playing field with other energy technologies overseas is essential, says the document.

Effective incentives must exist to spur new solar installation at utility scale, it goes on. Over 11GW of solar capacity is approved and awaiting construction. But the Allocation Round 6 of the Contracts for Difference reverse auctions will see less than 2GW of that total built, putting targets at risk.

The next government should also ensure that the Electricity Generator Levy, the Capacity Market, Balancing Mechanisms and the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) attracts investment in clean energy, with storage and flexibility to provide backup.

Read SolarEnergyUK’s manifesto here.

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Describing himself today as ‘politically homeless’, Skidmore resigned last year as a Conservative MP and party member over the Sunak government’s retreat from green initiatives, including delaying tougher requirements on home insulation and extending sales of petrol-driven cars.

Re-affirming his faith as a Conservative in markets, Skidmore told a solar conference in London :

“The future of energy is local. Community energy will create more flexibility for consumers, in bringing cheaper, cleaner electricity, achieving Net Zero, even balancing the grid.  It re-builds communities.  But too few politicians realise its implications”.

While sitting as a Bristol MP, Skidmore was tasked by premier Johnson to conduct an expert review of Britain’s Net Zero policies.  His “Mission Zero” report in January 2023 contained over 120 recommendations, re-affirming the goal’s necessity, and calling for accelerated practical measures to reach the target, in the face of opposition from several fellow Conservatives at Westminster.

Rishi Sunak’s subsequent wavering over Net Zero convinced Skidmore to end his 14 year career at Westminster and his Tory party membership, concentrating instead on work as professor of Net Zero policy at Bath Unversity.

On 27 June with trade body Renewable UK, Skidmore will publish “Net Zero at the Crossroads”, a new assessment seeking to influence the incoming government’s pursuit of energy sustainability and deadlines towards its delivery.  The day is the fifth anniversary of Skidmore while energy minister signing the Johnson government’s Net Zero goals into UK law.

The ex-minister & ex-Conservative told Solar Media’s UK Solar Summit this morning that he remains committed to continuing his cross-party advocacy for green energy, including in community fora such as Oxford County Council’s energy round table.

“My message to practitioners in solar and in community energy is to engage as fully as possible with politicians at every level at this crucial time for clean power”, Skidmore told the conference.

Activists & volunteers working through around 300 energy co-ops in England & Wales are a corrective, Skidmore implied, to what he called Britain’s culture of viewing energy as ‘a commodity imposed from above, top down’.  He called for more community co-ops such as that he had known in Bristol, and endorsed the work of the ‘Right of Local Sale’ campaign, to which over half of all MPs are now signed up.

Recalling attitudes among his former Conservative colleagues at Westminster, Skidmore shared with the conference analysis that, of the 100 constituencies with the most household PV deployed, every one is represented by a Conservative MP.

Skidmore recalled that 49-day premier Liz Truss enthused to him over the benefits of rooftop solar, but opposed PV farms on agricultural land. He reminded delegates that only 3% of UK land would be required to deliver the government’s continuing goal of 70GW of installed PV by 2030.

During his work on the Net Zero review, Skidmore recalled that Craig McKinlay, leader of the Net Zero Review group of sceptical Tory MPs, had expressed frustration that over one million homes installing PV in the past decade would face added expense of having to upgrade rooftop systems in future.

Britain needs to follow the example of more participative energy cultures of our European neighbours, Skidmore argued. Technical changes enabling dispersed low carbon generation, sometimes no longer under the control of corporations, dictated that a culture change was necessary.  Community participants should be guiding politicians, he said.

Interest declared: the author invests in and participates in several local UK energy co-operatives, including in London & the south east.

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“The upcoming election is a pivotal moment for the UK” said Rollo Maschietto, public affairs manager of the REA (in full, the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology):

Citing the REA’s 2024 manifesto, Maschietto explained that “tthe next administration will make decisions that will determine whether we meet our Net Zero targets or fall short”.

“The only way to ensure enduring energy security and an affordable energy system is by ending our reliance on volatile imported fossil fuels and moving to renewables and clean technologies, the REA spokesperson insisted.

The trade group  would work to have renewables and the transition to a zero-carbon economy as central topics in the forthcoming election campaign.

The REA is calling on all political parties to present robust, actionable plans that will drive the UK towards a sustainable energy future. It stood to work with all political parties and the future government to implement these plans.

Another trade body, BEAMA, which represents UK makers of power equipment & infrastructure, saw the election as presenting a stark choice for the sector.

“The next government has a simple decision to make”, its head Yselkla Farmer declared.   “Either create an environment for prosperity based on a successful green economy, or drive away billions of pounds of private investment and risk jobs with policy uncertainty and delay”.

Representing over 200 electrical manufacturers and innovators, the lobbyist called on Sunak or his replacement to prioritise:

1. Investing in grid capacity – The UK will need a larger electrical grid to connect the renewable generators, heat pumps, EV charge points, and other low carbon technologies needed to reach Net Zero.
2. Securing the UK energy market, by disconnecting power prices from unstable international gas markets The result would be electricity tariffs suppressed, providing certainty & security for businesses & householders.
3. Levelling the playing field in heating technology– Removing the extra VAT paid by households opting for low carbon heating technologies, would make Net Zero the most affordable choice.
4. Getting Smart Metering right – A more dynamic electricity system, low in carbon, would follow if consumers get access to real time consumption data. Completing Britain’s roll-out of smart meters would the nation doesn’t fall behind our continental neighbours

“Whoever wins the election”, BEAMA’s Farmer added, “they will need to prioritise a stable policy environment. Clarity from the government allows the innovative, high-impact solutions from industry, tackle the structural challenges in building a low cost, low carbon and secure energy system.”

For business energy supplier nPower, chief operating officer Anthony Ainsworth also called for certainty. “This needs to be a pro-business, energy-focussed election”, he said.

Ainsworth cited nPower’s two most recent Business Energy Tracker reports. These  showed how businesses wanted significantly more government support to invest in energy reduction measures, in order to better manage demand, reduce emissions and reinvest in operations.

“These are requirements we have long campaigned for”, said the nPower boss. “They need to be a key priority for the next government.

“Commercial energy users also want a modern, sustainable and secure system that supports their long-term Net Zero ambitions”,  Ainsworth went on.

“Without business investment, many of our energy and net zero goals won’t be possible, so supporting business is supporting economic growth, employment and national prosperity”.

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The government is approaching international nuclear builders & operators for another try at reviving nuclear generation on the island. Britain purchased the site this year from Hitachi for £160 million, after the Japanese firm in September 2020 cut its losses of £2 billion, incurred over its twelve years of attempting revive nuclear generation on the island.

Hitachi had intended to build two advanced boiling water reactors (ABWRs), with a combined capacity of 3GW on a site to the south of the existing Wylfa complex. The company’s plans foundered for reasons including concerns about a Contracts for Difference funding model of their venture.

in December 2015 the second of Wylfa’s two earlier Magnox reactors, each capable of 0.49GW, were shut down, forty four years after the plant was first commissioned.

This morning’s statement by energy secretary Claire Coutinho hails the Wylfa decision as part of the Sunak government’s biggest expansion of British nuclear generation for 70 years. Quadrupling the source before mid century by up to 24GW will be achieved through a mix of large-scale traditional plants and small modular reactors, which are quicker to build, said the minister.

A revived Wylfa will fall in the same supra-3GW capacity bracket as Hinkley Point C and the planned Sizewell C.

The government’s development entity Great British Nuclear, tasked with delivering the world’s fastest small modular reactor competition, recently secured Wylfa and Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire as possible sites for new nuclear projects. It was the first time the government acquired land for nuclear since the 1960s.

“Anglesey has a proud nuclear history. It’s only right that, once again, it can play a central role in boosting the UK’s energy security”, Coutinho declared.  Wylfa would contribute clean reliable power to millions of homes, she claimed, adding that it could create thousands of well-paid jobs.

Her cabinet colleagu Welsh secretary David TC Davies added: “Alongside the revival of Wylfa, recent measures we have announced include a freeport for Anglesey, £17 million in Levelling Up money for Holyhead and electrification of the North Wales rail line. These show that the UK government continues to deliver for Anglesey and for North Wales”.

Sam Richards, CEO of regeneration lobbyists Britain Remade, added: “News that Wylfa is a preferred site for a new gigawatt scale power station will come as a huge relief to local islanders who are crying out for a new reactor”.

“It’s critical that the planning red-tape that has slowed down building Hinkley Point C, and added huge costs, are quickly addressed by government.

“With the announcement of new nuclear at Wylfa, the case for a third Menai crossing is stronger than ever. The governments in Westminster and Cardiff should now work together to deliver.”

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The only significant new step announced by the energy security secretary today, according to the lobbyists, concerns perceptions of accuracy in ranking the soil quality on agricultural land housing new racks of panels.

The government intends to strengthen such perceptions by means of more independent certification in land assessments sent by developers to planning authorities.  This measure is intended to help avoid disputes over which areas are subject to planning guidelines on higher quality agricultural land.

“Both Coutinho and the Prime Minister’s broader comments on food security appear to be directed at a small minority of anti-solar Conservative backbenchers, rather than decision-makers in local councils”, said Solar Energy UK in a statement released this afternoon.

“Solar farms take up a tiny fraction of the country. That will still be the case in 2035 when the government expects us to have four times current solar generation capacity”, said the industry body, citing the government’s April 2022 Energy Security Strategy, and a Carbon Brief evaluation later that year on solar farms’ impact on UK farmland.

“Solar farms are no threat to food security; they never have been and never will be. In fact, it’s the opposite,” said Solar Energy UK’s ‘roi soleil’, chief executive Chris Hewett.

“According to Defra, the main threat to food security is climate change, which is what solar farms are there to fight.”

“Without solar farms, hundreds of traditional farming businesses would have gone to the wall, unable to produce food without the security of a reliable income,” Hewett added.

Yesterday the government published the first release of Britain’s new official Food Security Index. The cost of energy to food producers was among key factors it identifies.

By the government’s own figures, the lobbyists claim, solar farms are the cheapest source of electricity, adding to their contribution to food security, to decarbonisation and thus to Britain’s broader national interests.

Advocates for solar farms say it is common for agriculture to continue in fields once panels are hooked up, typically through sheep grazing. Racks erected a metre and more above the soil also offer benefits to nature, such as providing shelter for wildlife and native flora, thus restoring natural habitats among intensively farmed ‘green deserts’.

Solar farms are demonstrably liked by their human neighbours, as consistently evidenced in Whitehall’s own surveys. Independent research in November by analysis firm Climate Barometer found that MPs & casual readers of newspapers vastly overestimate public opposition to farms’ introduction.

“The solar industry will continue to follow established principles”, the lobbyists’ statement went on. “(The industry) looks forward to the publication of the government-industry Solar Roadmap, which will light the way towards adding more than 50GW of solar capacity over the next decade”. The master plan is expected in coming weeks.

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in December the ministry also cancelled progression of a village-scale hydrogen trial at Winlaton near Redcar, pictured.

Officials now believe the low carbon gas, in either its fossil-fuel-derived blue hue, or the cleaner green variety electrolysed with wind-generated electricity, may have a role to play in heat decarbonisation, but in slower time and in only ‘some’ locations.

D-ESNZ plans to take a final decision in 2026, after assessing evidence including from a neighbourhood-scale hydrogen trial in Fife and other studies across Europe.

Britain’s four main operators of gas networks have lobbied Whitehall hard for hydrogen to be viewed as a panacea, a high convenience, low cost replacement for methane-heavy, climate-wrecking ‘natural’ gas in Britain’s 30 million homes.

In October 2022, the then D-BEIS ministry invited the four to commit to operational trials, leading to mass deployment.  All four responded with business plans.

But the hydrogen drive had been opposed as impractical, manipulative and still polluting by advocates for electric heat.

One immediately welcomed Whitehall’s backtracking yesterday.  James Standley, chief technical officer of Truro-based Kensa, Britain’s only manufacturer of heat pumps, and a company part-owned by Octopus Energy,  said abandoning the village-scale trial was “further recognition that hydrogen has no major role to play in future home heating”.

“Every academic study on the issue, the economics and the physics demonstrates this”, Standley went on. “The government should now take the next logical step and rule out hydrogen heating for anything other than a small number of very specific cases.

Electrification, whether via heat pumps or heat networks, remains the best and quickest way to achieve clean heat while ensuring the best outcomes for consumers, Standley opined.

“The longer hydrogen remains part of the conversation”, the Kensa boss said, “the further the transition will be delayed, hampering the speed at which these already proven technologies are rolled out.”

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Only one person in eight, or 13%, says their local communities are investing enough in becoming more sustainable.

The study quantifies growing public demand for more sustainable energy – allied to cleaner air in cities and greater investment in greener lifestyles.

23% of people flatly say they’d consider moving away if their city or town does not become greener.  That figure has risen by almost half from a similar nationwide E.ON survey from 2022, when 16% of people made the same claim.

In workplaces, 26% of people said they would be prepared to quit their job if the company didn’t become greener in the next five years, rising from 18% in 2022.

E.ON’s study of 10,000 people across Britain highlights widespread discontent at the speed investment programmes are being rolled out. 51% of respondents don’t think the country is working fast enough to reduce carbon emissions. Fewer than one in ten – 8% –  feel listened to on decisions around local green investments.

A meagre 8% –  up from 7% in 2022-  feel listened to when decisions are made about local green investments, including energy generation. That number falls to just 6% in the North, Wales, and across the Midlands.

Energy co-ops give local agency as well as power 

Only 10% of respondents expressed pride in their local communities’ efforts to invest in green initiatives. The lowest levels of pride are in the East Midlands, East of England, North East and North West.

Across the UK, 60% of adults want more say in how taxpayers’ money is invested in green initiatives for businesses and communities, peaking in the South of England & London, both on 63% and Scotland, 59%.

E.ON UK chief executive Chris Norbury observed: “This survey shows public attitudes & ambitions towards building more sustainable communities are growing year on year. It’s on all of us across business, public life and within our communities to respond to that clamour for change.

“Investing in sustainability brings so many social benefits and it’s something absolutely everyone can see the value of, whether that’s helping people with lower energy bills, cleaning the air in our streets, or creating the jobs and skills we need for the future. What we call the energy transition has benefits right across society and we have to share that message wider.

“While our study highlights frustration among the public around the speed and scale of sustainable investment, it also demonstrates people understand and really want the benefits such investment will bring. Chief among these is the positive impact on jobs and prosperity.”

74% of people agree environmental change starts with communities or businesses, yet two in five (39% – although a reduction from 46% in 2022 – ) do not think that their region is doing enough to reduce carbon emissions and make life greener.

Leading the way among potential home-movers, more than a third (34%) of Londoners threatening to move if their city doesn’t become greener in the next five to ten years.

The top five sustainable improvements people would like to see in their community emerge as :

• Making homes greener & cheaper to run – 55%
• Reducing public buildings’ carbon impact – 47%
• Create more green spaces in built up urban areas – 44%
• Make sure all new building projects are completed to Net Zero targets – 43%
• Electrify all public transport – 36%

Old and young generations agree. More than three quarters of all age groups say communities (76%) and businesses (77%) need to become greener for the benefit of younger generations.

People younger than 24 were twice as likely to cite the sustainability credentials of a business as a reason to work there; 43% versus 18% in the over 55s.  Youngsters were twice as likely to move companies if their employer did not take steps to go greener (42% versus 16%).

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Renewable energy projects totalling 7.8GW in new capacity – more than double that of the still uncompleted Hinkley Point C nuclear plant – , have had their offer dates brought forward by as much as a decade, thanks to the Technical Limits programme.

The programme allows solar, wind and other generators to hook into lower voltage distribution grids of up to 133kV, even before reinforcements are completed to national transmission networks, which operate at between 220kV and 440kV.

According to the National Grid, network operators have this year sent offers to 203 projects totalling 7.8GW, achieving what NG claims is an average connection shortening of 6.5 years.

In total 393 projects are eligible for Technical Limits with the further 190 projects able to receive accelerated offers once they have progressed through the connection offer process.

Last month Horsey Levels, a solar farm near Bridgwater, pictured, became the first project to be energised under the scheme. A PV park generating for a notional 10,000 homes, Horsey Levels was connected to National Grid’s distribution network ahead of its original planned connection date.

Strenuously urged on foot-dragging netcos by developers, Ofgem and ministers, the ‘Technical Limits’ regime represents unprecedented collaboration between NG Electricity Transmission, the Energy Networks Association, the Electricity System Operator and regional DNOs.

Scottish Transmission & Distribution network owners have also been involved in developing the Technical Limits programme and are in the process of rolling out the programme in their licence areas.

Welcoming the NG’s announcement, Justin Tomlinson MP, Graham Stuart’s recent replacement as D-ESNZ minister of state, said:

“Thanks to a team effort, over 200 clean energy projects will be connected to our grid earlier. It means thousands of homes and businesses will be powered by more renewable energy generated in Britain.

We are delivering the biggest reforms to the network since the 1950s – allowing us to hook more renewables up to the grid so households and businesses can benefit from cleaner, cheaper electricity,” Tomlinson added.

By agreeing new limits on maximum power flow, DNOs have been able to offer their chosen projects an accelerated connection date, sometimes before reinforcements are made to the 144kV transmission network are completed.

Advanced connections carry an obligation on a site’s developers that the DNO can limit flows from the project under certain operating conditions.

The 203 connection offers that have been issued in the first phase have an average export curtailment of 22% per year. Parties expect that in the long term these interim arrangements will be replaced as network capacity increases.

Alice Delahunty, President of National Grid Electricity Transmission added: “Connecting projects to our transmission network, and unlocking capacity at lower voltage distribution networks, is a massive priority for us.

“The Technical Limits programme is a fantastic example of cross-industry collaboration. This team effort has delivered an innovative solution to connect schemes more quickly. We’re pleased to see the first project connect earlier than expected and look forward to many more”.

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Britain’s 29,000 schools need up to £5.4 billion invested in lighting upgrades and on-roof solar power generation, if they are to achieve the government’s Net Zero targets by mid-century, new research claims.

The figure – equivalent to 5% of all government spending on education last year – comes in a report from eEnergy, a commercial provider of energy efficiency services.  Its study accuses ministers of doing too little to help the nation’s primary & secondary maintained sectors meet the Net Zero goals overseen by energy ministry D-ESNZ.

“A catastrophic combination of increased impact caused by our current energy consumption, and rising operational costs for schools, has resulted in Net Zero energy infrastructure in schools being pushed down the agenda”, it charges.

The government budgeted to spend £107 billion last year on all public education, including universities, schools and colleges.  The Energyst thus calculates that eEnergy’s £ 5.4 Billion estimate equates to 5% of all public spending on education.

Around 70% of UK schools are still using outdated lighting, eEnergy’s study finds.   Easily switching out of fluorescent tubes & old-style thermal bulbs, then switching in LED devices, can axe bills for lighting alone by over 90%.

LEDs alone, eEnergy calculates, can save Britain’s schools as much as £2.3 Billion over ten years.

Ministers lag, still emitting more heat than light

Increasing numbers of schools now make their own energy on-site, whether via PV panels making clean electricity on roofs, or devices such as heat pumps. But eEnergy calculates asmuch as 30% of all energy generated on site is wasted, since that share is made during school holidays or at weekends.

The solution is on-site storage of clean power, the study implies, in forms such as batteries, now dropping in price.   

eEnergy says its own projects in practical energy efficiency look set to yield £102.3 million net savings for clients over a ten-year period.

It has worked with 840 schools to date, installing LEDs and solar panels, advising on efficiency measures and behaviour change by users.

In one year alone, the service provider says it has helped UK schools save £13 million, the cost of 5.4 million free school meals.

Replacing hot-running, wasteful bulbs with cooler, cheaper-to-run LEDs is also a revenue earner for many of England’s 300-or so volunteer-led clean energy co-operatives.   Local groups of volunteers affiliated to lobbyists Community Energy England or its Welsh & Scots equivalents, raise money in small sums from private individuals. The co-ops strike binding deals with schools & other public bodies, earning agreed revenue from savings or sales of excess generation atop classrooms.

Grant sources such as the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme offer cash for capital upgrades to boost efficiency.   But bidders greatly outnumber donors, and schools must compete with NHS- or council-managed presmises, such as leisure centres, swimming pools and hospitals

eEnerygy’s report quotes evidence that only 21% of the £1.27 billion handed out over the last two phases of the PSDS scheme went to schools, a 20% drop in value since the first funding wave in 2020.

“Cuts in school funding since 2014 have made funding projects aiding schools’ Net Zero transition unrealistic”, it claims

“Following the latest budget announcement, 2024-2025 funding is due to be 3% lower in real terms than it was in 2010. And the lack of available capital has been compounded by soaring running costs driven by external shocks to energy markets. These have  further depleted schools’ already tight budgets”.

Read eEnergy’s report here.

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Downing Street announced on Friday afternoon that Stuart’s role will be now filled by Justin Tomlinson, MP for Swindon North.

Critics noted that Stuart’s Parliamentary record has included being made to fly home from the last COP climate summit in Dubai to vote in favour of the Conservatives’ Rwanda bill and then to fly back, a round trip of nearly 7,000 miles.

Stuart, 62, told the PM in a letter dated yesterday that he is “proud to have served” in Sunak’s government but is stepping aside to focus on local issues affecting his Humberside constituency.

Stuart was first elected as MP for Beverley and Holderness, north of Hull, in 2005. At the 2019 General Election, he was returned with a majority of almost 16,000 over Labour.  But plummeting Conservative popularity has led one predictive website, Electoral Calculus, to forecast the seat now has a 74% chance of going Labour at this year’s general election.

The father of two, who has served in the government for eight years, said he will “fully support” the Prime Minister from the back benches.  He was appointed as D-ESNZ minister of state in September 2022.

Stuart said he now also hopes to focus on improving access to dentistry and healthcare and working with farmers on flooding.

In a statement, the Tory MP said: “I’m proud to have served in the government for most of the past eight years, but now it’s time to focus on Beverley and Holderness.

“I’m proud to have achieved much over the past 18 years, from rock armour at Withernsea to saving East Riding Community Hospital, installing life-saving defibrillators in rural communities and slashing fares on the Humber Bridge.

“I’m looking forward to working with communities to make our roads safer, helping the council take full advantage of the opportunities brought by devolution, pressing the case for York to Hull Rail and improving healthcare in Beverley and Holderness.”

The resignation comes as Sunak battles devastating approval ratings, with the Tories trailing more than 20 points behind Labour.

A recent MRP poll from YouGov showed that the party could suffer a bigger landslide defeat than that seen by John Major in 1997, with as many as 11 cabinet ministers braced to lose their seats.

More than 63 Tory MPs have announced they are standing down at the next election, including former prime minister Theresa May, former Chancellor Sajid Javid, former Environment Secretary George Eustice, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross and former Justice Secretary Dominic Raab.

Before his role as energy and Net Zero minister, Stuart had also served in the Foreign Office, and the Department for International Trade.

Stuart was born in Carlisle. He attended school in Scotland before going to Selwyn College, Cambridge University to read philosophy and law.  Entrepreneurship in publishing then followed.

CORRECTION: This story originally & erroneously stated the new energy minister Justin Tomlinson is the current illegal migrants’ minister.  That is Michael Tomlinson MP.

Since election for Swindon North in 2010, Justin Tomlinson MP has served in junior ministerial roles at the Department of Work & Pensions and for the Conservative Party as a deputy chairman.

Reportedly while studying at Oxford Brookes University in the late 1990s, Justin Tomlinson  and fellow student Chris Kelly both placed £50 bets with William Hill that either would become Prime Minister by the year 2038. At odds of 10,000:1 then accepted, Tomlinson stands to collect £500,000 if successful.

In 2016, Tomlinson made a ‘full and unreserved apology’ and was suspended from the Commons from two days, after he admitted leaking a draft copy of a report on payday loans to an employee of Wonga, the high interest lender.  The then disabilities minister kept that job.  Tomlinson had been a member of the influential Public Accounts committee at the time of the rule breach in 2013.

In 2014, Tomlinson reported the then Labour shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan to police for allegedly using his mobile phone while in charge of a motor vehicle. No prosecution ensued.

Tomlinson voted for Brexit, as did 57% of his constituents who voted at the 2016 referendum.   Today the predictive website Electoral Calculus forecasts that Swindon North stands a 79% chance of flipping to Labour at this year’s expected general election.

The post Energy minister Graham Stuart quits, opts for backbenches appeared first on theenergyst.com.

The green charity’s research, assisted by Exeter University’s academics, further strengthens developers’ complaints at continuing government foot-dragging over new turbines in England’s Conservative-voting shires.

Despite supposedly reversing two years ago David Cameron’s 2015 ban on new turbines in the home nation, Rishi Sunak’s government continues to shun a reform in planning regulations, which continue to presume against new wind developments.

The FoE study identifies nearly 220,000 hectares of English land considered most suitable for onshore turbines, as well as 300,000 hectares favouring new solar farms. The total equates to only 3% of England’s gross land surface.

Some sites could combine both methods, while still conserving both visual amenity and biodiversity, say researchers.

The study’s interactive map  shows the sites at local authority level.  North Yorkshire, the county’s East Riding and Lincolnshire emerge as areas of greatest untapped potential.

Omitted from the FoE/Exeter study are England’s higher grade agricultural land, its national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) and heritage sites. Yet the researchers still find enough viable land to generate 130,000GWh of solar power every year, and 96,000GWh from onshore turbines.

That combined 226,000GW potential every year across both technologies vastly outstrips England’s present land-based output. It currently stands at around 17,000 GWh from already built PV farms and turbines.

With commercial roofs and existing housing stock also excluded as generating sites, FoE stress that not all the land identified would be needed to meet de-carb targets.

The National Grid’s latest Future Energy Scenarios suggest  Britain must double in only six years our renewable electricity yield. Low carbon power is needed in vastly increased amounts to meet targets on switching to homes and businesses to clean heating, and powering EVs.   Adding to the imperative is the government’s treaty-backed commitment to cut carbon emissions by 68% further this decade.

Meeting consumption solely from Britain’s homes, today’s research finds that if all the land identified were developed for onshore solar or wind, in theory 2.5 times more electricity than currently required.

FoE’s climate campaigner Tony Bosworth argued: “Unleashing the UK’s immense potential to generate cheap, clean homegrown renewables is essential to bring down our energy bills for good and meeting the UK’s vital international target to reduce carbon emissions by two thirds by 2030.

“But the current government’s track record on boosting our energy security through renewables is woefully inadequate. It has left the UK lagging far behind in the global race to a zero-carbon economy. Meanwhile, Labour is looking increasingly shaky on climate after rolling back its planned investment in green growth.

Trade association SolarEnergyUK endorsed FoE’s research.   Gemma Grimes, its director of policy and delivery, said: “Friends of the Earth’s welcome report is a good illustration of the wide suitability of land for solar development.

“If we assume that the same ratio of ground-mounted to roof-mounted developments that we see today continues – roughly 2:1 in terms of capacity –“, Grimes added, ”we would need about 35GW of new solar farms to reach the Government’s goal of reaching 70GW by 2035.

“That would mean that deployment would extend to a fraction of the area marked out in the study, while still offering lower bills, a more secure energy supply and benefits for wildlife.”

The post Mapping for wind & solar: England “can produce 13x more clean energy than now”, FoE finds appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Households living on communal and district heating networks – a key part of the government’s plans to deliver low-carbon heat to the UK – are currently excluded from any protection created by the price cap.

The Energy Bill Discount Scheme, created to provide equivalent support, ended on 31 March, leaving families exposed to unrestricted prices dictated by the wholesale gas market.

Heat Trust, the national consumer champion for homes on heat networks, has written to Energy Minister Lord Callanan to call for an urgent extension to the scheme.

It points out that official data on payments made to energy suppliers under the scheme show that less than 15% (£55.5m) of the originally allocated £380m had been spent after 10 of the 12 months of the year. This data also suggests that only around 2,550 heat networks had their electricity and gas costs supported, out of the 9,000 plus UK heat networks with domestic customers.

Heat Trust also say that they are still hearing of many cases of customers paying heat tariffs at rates as high as 50-80 p/kWh, which could equate to bills of over £5,000 per year for heating alone.

Even as energy wholesale prices fall, many heat network consumers will not feel the benefit for some time as their providers may be locked into long-term fixed-price contracts, something the support scheme was designed to mitigate. Heat network operators (usually the building owner/freeholder or their appointed energy company) buy gas for communal boilers on the commercial gas market, before converting it to heat for households.

Stephen Knight, Heat Trust’s director, said: “When the Energy Bill Discount Scheme was launched, the government said that it would ensure heat network customers would not face disproportionately higher energy bills than other households. Sadly, for many of the country’s 500k heat network customers, this has not been the case.

“While the majority of households are finally seeing the cost of their energy bills starting to ease, many families in homes supplied by heat networks are still experiencing much higher prices as they remain unprotected by the price cap and pay for heat based on the historic wholesale cost of gas.

 “We have called on the government to urgently extend the scheme for a further year, ensuring that help reaches more heat network customers in need of support.

At the very least”, Knight went on, “we need to ensure that everyone entitled to support in 2023-24 receives the money that they are entitled to, and that enforcement action it taken against suppliers who have failed to apply on behalf of their customers.”

The Heat Trust launched in November 2015. It sets out common standards for levels of customer service which heat suppliers should provide their customers.

It also affords consumers on heat networks registered with the scheme access to the Energy Ombudsman for settling complaints between customers and their heat supplier.    Registered networks re listed here.

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Construction of the £400m project, due to start this summer, will allow more renewable and low-carbon energy to move onto electricity grid and into homes and businesses, both in Yorkshire and further afield.

The reinforcement will help deliver the government’s Net Zero targets as well as enable a cleaner, more affordable, and more resilient energy system.

Deemed a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, Yorkshire GREEN is the first of seven onshore projects proposed by National Grid across England and Wales required to be consented through a DCO.

The project also is part of the Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework established by Ofgem.

National Grid has been engaging with communities and local stakeholders on the project since 2020, including two rounds of public consultation and further localised targeted consultations. Feedback from local stakeholders, communities and wider consultees has helped shape the proposals, and we are committed to continuing this engagement as we work to ensure the project leaves a lasting legacy in its host communities.

Contractors have been appointed.  Morrison Energy Services has been selected to deliver the new overhead line and existing overhead line refurbishment. Murphy will deliver two new substations in Overton and Monk Fryston.  Hyosung and Hyundai will supply transformers to the substations.

Matt Staley, National Grid director of onshore delivery said: “I am delighted after months of consideration the government has granted development consent to build Yorkshire GREEN.

“This marks a major milestone for The Great Grid Upgrade, and as the first project to have been given consent to begin construction, it will help the UK to meet its Net Zero and energy security ambitions, reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and contribute to lower energy bills over the long-term.

The post D-ESNZ approves NGrid’s Yorkshire GREEN upgrade appeared first on theenergyst.com.

The move calls into question the Sunak administration’s declared commitment to purge carbon dioxide from Britain’s electricity by 2035, against Labour’s goal of 2030.

At least one green supplier, as well as environmental campaigners, have been dismayed by Conservative pre-briefings of Coutinho’s announcement today.

But her intention comes with Rishi Sunak’s personal backing.  In a statement made in advance of his appointee’s address, the premier declared: “Britain needs to reach our 2035 goals in a sustainable way that doesn’t leave people without energy on a cloudy, windless day.

“I will not gamble with our energy security. I will make the tough decisions so we can always power Britain from Britain”.

In her Chatham House speech, Coutinho was expected to say direct replacements will be needed for as many as four gas-powered generators, covering for intermittent renewables, which are as yet inadequately supported by battery storage.

At the same time, D-ESNZ’s secretary signalled that imminent market reforms must enact locational pricing of power, in a move colleagues claim will itself incentivise more clean generation.

Secretary Coutinho today launched the second phase of public consultation over REMA, the government’s Review of Energy Market Arrangements.  The reforms are billed as the most radical overhaul ever of Britain’s electricity trading and delivery.

Locational or ‘zonal’ pricing will be their centrepiece.  Supporters claim the measure can avoid costly network upgrades and pylon re-fits, potentially spurring investment in localised green supply, particularly in areas of unfulfilled need such as the South-East. Sharper customer sensitivity to regional or faster changing prices will result too, say advocates.

Ever since power became a tradable asset, Britain’s system of marginal or ‘spot’ national pricing has dictated that the most expensive new unit of electricity available at any given time sets prices to meet increased demand, no matter where it arises.

Gas plants’ unmatched speed of response for big volumes drives market-makers to choose the fuel as the default solution.  Gas is preferred too, due to the UK’s scarcity of battery-stored power at scale, yielding cleaner but intermittent wind and solar.

Locational costing could, the ministry calculates, cut up to £45 off typical annual bills per household.  But even with REMA, new gas plants will be needed to cushion its introduction, officials believe, as Britain’s nascent electricity storage sector grows to meet demand. Coutinho claims new gas plants would be ‘NetZero ready’, but her statement today confirms they will be unabated.

Last year, gas turbines generated 32% of the UK’s electricity, ahead of 29% from wind. Nuclear met 14%. Prices for long-term supply stand at record levels. Last month, deals to supply power in 2027-28 closed at an unprecedented £65 per MWh.

“Without gas backing up renewables, we face the genuine prospect of blackouts,” Coutinho said this morning. “Other countries in recent years have been so threatened by supply constraints that they have been forced back to coal”.

“If we cannot retain control of energy prices, if we cannot protect families and businesses from the threat of future shocks, then we are not really secure. So, we must be hard-headed about the future of our energy system”.

Nigel Pocklington, CEO of green supplier Good Energy, was scathing about Coutinho’s favouring of unabated new gas.

“In scaremongering about ‘blackouts’ from renewables, the energy security secretary appears to be getting her energy policy advice from conspiratorial blog posts published circa 2010,” the Good Energy boss stated.

“It makes no sense to be promising new gas generation when we are still recovering from the shock of the UK’s unique exposure to global gas prices. Let alone when the UK’s cheapest source of power, onshore wind, is effectually blocked.

“Her announcements on locational pricing have the potential to help make our energy system more fit for a lower carbon future”, Pocklington conceded.

“This is the real energy security measure announced today — more local, home grown clean renewable power brings down bills, carbon and our reliance on volatile gas markets.”

From the Association of Decentralised Energy, policy head Sarah Honan backed REMA as a means to create a more flexible and transparent electricity market, powered more by renewables.

She said: “If we don’t place the demand-side at the heart of electricity market reform, we will need to build four new gas plants by 2030.

“The UK has one of the strongest offshore wind markets in the world. And yet, during the energy crisis, we were also one of the countries most exposed to high gas prices, leading to record levels of fuel poverty and debt in the energy system.

“Transforming our energy markets is not a story of balancing the books between fossil fuels, renewables and wires to transport it all. It is a story of how UK homes and businesses are empowered to participate in these markets on equal terms, with equal rewards”, said the ADE official.

“Rather than continuing to focus on a handful of generation assets dotted around the country, we must turn our gaze to the millions of electric vehicles, heat pumps, and industrial processes that can balance the books, if only the markets allowed them to.”

Greg Jackson, founder of market-disrupting green generator Octopus agreed. “Our ridiculously distorted energy market forces us to send electricity to France when we need it most and pay a premium to buy it back from Norway, all while paying Scottish wind farms to switch off.

“With locational pricing, customers will save hundreds of pounds a year on bills and parts of the UK will see the lowest electricity prices in Europe, attracting new industry and reducing the need for new pylons”, the Octopus boss went on.

“It’s right that the government is progressing zonal pricing and the energy sector must now work together to get this up and running swiftly so we can attract new industries – from data centres to manufacturing – and customers can benefit from cheaper electricity fast.”

For solar developers, lobby group SolarEnergyUK said it remained sceptical.

“Zonal pricing would introduce additional uncertainty into the market, raising the cost of capital for renewable energy at a time when we need to deploy around 10 gigawatts of renewable capacity each year until 2035, and deliver a lowest cost clean energy system for billpayers”, said the trade body.

From heat pump installer Heatio, currently aiding E.on customers, CEO Simon Roberts was critical.

“Further investment in, and a reliance on fossil fuels contradicts the government’s commitment to Net Zero”, Roberts commented. More concerningly, it highlights its belief that this will deliver greater energy security.

“We have seen in recent times the impact of failed government policies to decarbonise industrial and residential buildings, which has led to the energy crisis we face today.

“We should be focusing investment on energy security and renewable generation here in the UK, not becoming more reliant on foreign gas”, the Heatio boss added.

“This announcement only highlights the lack of strategy and investment in clean energy generation, storage and a UK smart grid, which would enable the flexibility we need in both supply and demand to serve UK energy customers”.

The House of Lords’ science committee is expected tomorrow to criticize the government’s delays in sending clear signals to companies eager to invest in utility-scale electricity storage, including as back-up beyond two hours.

Today, its chair Baroness Brown of Cambridge was dismissive of Coutinho’s & Sunak’s intentions.

“it is disappointing that the government seems focused on fossil fuels as a stop gap and not long duration energy storage as a secure solution”, the peer commented.

“A strategic reserve of hydrogen as a means of low-carbon long-duration energy storage would insulate the UK against dependence on volatile gas prices whilst allowing it to continue decarbonising the electricity system.

“We should be building this now rather than designing in delay by expecting the market to deliver fossil-fuelled plants that hardly be used and will rapidly become stranded assets.”

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