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 MP joins fellow Tories and former ministers Chris Skidmore and Lord Zac Goldsmith in public opposition to premier Rishi Sunak’s intention to give the green light to more fossil fuels drilled from UK-controlled sources.

Sharma, an energy secretary under disgraced premier Johnson, this morning reminded listeners to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that, in his words;

“Just a few weeks ago at Cop28 the UK government signed up to transition away from fossil fuels. This bill is actually about doubling down on new oil and gas licences. It is actually the opposite of what we agreed to do internationally, so I won’t be supporting it.”

Skidmore, commissioned by Johnson as author of a review of UK energy’s compliance with the government’s Net Zero goals, resigned as a Conservative MP last week, in protest at Sunak’s and Truss’ recent watering down of environmental commitments, such as pushing the cessation of new ICE cars back by five years to 2035.

Skidmore’s Gloucestershire seat us set to disappear later this year under boundary changes.  But his statement on Friday left the door open to him standing down sooner, triggering a further tricky by-election for Sunak’s administration.

Also declared in opposition at tonight’s vote is former environment minister Lord Goldsmith. He told a newspaper: “Conservatives are facing almost certain defeat at the election and so now is not the time for colleagues to be slavishly obedient to a leadership that simply will not be there in a matter of months.

“This vote is about something so much more important than the average vote” Goldsmith added, “and members will not be able to sanitise their records in the years to come.

“Some will be ex-MPs, others will cling on, but all of them will want to be able to tell their children and grandchildren that they were on the right side of history”.

The 49-day premiership of Liz Truss witnessed new government moves to greenlight fresh extraction of hydrocarbons.

The government has weakened its line that oil and gas newly drilled from UK reserves – such as Rosebank off Shetland –  will be dedicated to home consumption, thus enhancing the nation’s energy security.

A D-ESNZ answer emerging over Christmas to a question from Labour MP Russell-Moyles confirmed that, contrary to former assurances, at least 80% of output from the Shetland field will indeed be traded on international markets, and not reserved for home consumption.

New analysis released today from academic commentators the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit points out that offshore extraction can only continue to dwindle in importance as a source of Britain’s energy security, irrespective of new licences.

Dr Simon Cran-McGeehin, the ECIU’s head of analysis said “New licences are a distraction from policies that would have a real, lasting impact on the UK’s energy independence. Oil from new fields such as Rosebank will be traded internationally – as the government has admitted.

“This oil is not earmarked for the UK and it won’t make any real difference to UK prices“.

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Though opposed by vocal libertarians in Skidmore’s party, Net Zero remains Britain’s best, quickest option to secure energy security and curbing carbon from the nation’s economy, according to the Industrial Mission Zero Network, the advisory enquiry set up in September last year.

Its report “Decarbonise Now” draws on meetings with over 1,000 organisations. More than 1,800 pieces of evidence were considered.

Skidmore writes: “To meet Britiain’s Sixth Carbon Budget, industrial emissions need to fall by an annual average of 8% between 2022 and 2030.

“We can achieve this by placing greater focus on improved efficiency, electrification and utilising digital tools, both those available and disruptive technologies as they are developed”.

“Net zero is the growth opportunity of the 21st century”, the report asserts, and “Britain should be proud of the steps it has taken to achieve it”.   Over 90% of global economic output is now covered by Net Zero targets, the report notes

It calls for a twin-track approach to decarbonising Britain’s industry and commerce:

• maximising decarbonisation now, with the tools and technologies able to be deployed with the correct policy support,
• by speeding up longer term provision of CCUS ( carbon capture use and storage ) at all industrial sites, allied to wider deployment of hydrogen over pipeline networks.

The reports cites a finding  by the London School of Economics that CCUS has potential to preserve u to 53,000 jobs in energy intensive industries.

To overcome what it calls the “net present danger” of not acting fast enough in taking forward “no regrets and no excuses” policies, Skidmore’s  review picks out ‘25 measures by 2025’ for immediate delivery.

The Association of Renewable Energy & Low Carbon Technologies welcomed the report. Its director Dr Nina Skorupska commented:

“Britain needs to find a way to compete with international destinations for Net Zero supply chains and investment to enable the decarbonisation of our industries, which will be critical to realising Net Zero.

“Existing mechanisms such as the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme are too narrowly focused, and currently do not do enough to enable all business and industries to decarbonise.

The report was right to highlight urgent deployment of viable low carbon technologies already available such as bioenergy heat pumps and deep geothermal. Longer term support was also needed for critical technologies like bioenergy CCUS and hydrogen production.

Read the report here.

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A ministerial statement in Parliament this afternoon is expected to issue guidance to UK planners, enacting a presumption in favour of new wind turbine farms on English landscapes, thus reversing David Cameron’s block imposed since 2015 on new developments in England.

Opposition from leading Tories to the ban’s continuation, including from former energy secretary & CoP26 president Sir Alok Sharma and from ex-premier Liz Truss, is reported to have forced the hand of ministers, including planning and levelling up secretary Michael Gove and new energy secretary Claire Coutinho.

Cameron clamped down on new English wind projects in 2015, in response to NIMBY-ist lobbying against the technology, orchestrated by Leicestershire MP Chris Heaton-Harris, now the secretary of state for Northern Ireland but at the time a backbencher.  Conservative newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph & Daily Mail exaggerated turbines’ alleged harm to house prices and numbers of strikes leading to bird deaths.

Wind electricity has in recent years traded on wholesale markets at between £40 and £50 per MWh, half the pre-Ukraine price of gas-generated power, and lower yet than nuclear.

Behind only solar, land-based wind is also the second quickest power technology to deploy at utility scale.  Upfront capital costs of land-based turbines per MW of generation are thought to be about one-third of their marine sisters.

New turbines have continued to be erected in Wales & Scotland under devolved powers.

The Johnson administration twelve months ago signalled a nominal end to Cameron’s then seven-year ban on English ventures.  But a succession of planning ministers under three Tory premiers since has left Whitehall failing to complete administrative arrangements. Left in place was Cameron’s block that, in effect, enabled a single local objection to hold up any wind application in England.

Last week, research into popular views among 2,000 UK billpayers continued to draw into question the true extent of vocal, but increasingly unrepresentative opposition to land-based turbines.  Copper Communication’s study found that – contrary to NIMBY narratives – older Britons are even more in favour of local renewable power sources – including onshore wind farms in their locality – than their children.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 at lunchtime today, and before the expected ministerial statement, James Robottom, head of onshore wind at RenewableUK asked for planning processes to treat turbines the same as other onshore structures. He feared that proposals emerging from a government consultation closed in March would not be sufficient to restore developers’ faith.

Investor confidence in the technology was very low, said Robottom, as a result of a planning system likely still to discriminate against onshore wind.  ”We are trying  to re-start a supply chain from a standing start,” he added.

Conservative objector John Hayes MP, a former energy minister, told the programme that onshore wind farms adversely affected the landscape, local amenities and house prices. “There is no place for onshore wind where it is spreads across the open countryside”, Hayes said.

Chris Skidmore, the Tory MP who reviewed Britain’s Net Zero policies for disgraced premier Johnson, said that the eight-year ban had increased costs on British consumers, by depriving them of lower cost onshore power.   Many of his fellow MPs lagged behind a sea-change affecting among UK voters, most of whom now supported greater onshore generation.

Three turbines were erected onshore in England in 2022, including two near Keele, Staffordshire.

That’s fewer than the 19 Ukraine managed last year at  Tyligulska, near Mykolaiv in the country’s south, while fighting Russian invaders.

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“Of the world’s eight biggest economies, the UK is forecast to have the slowest growth in low-carbon electricity generation between now and 2030”, says the paper, the Clean Growth Gap.

Forecasters Oxford Economics were commissioned by Energy UK to analyse drivers, trends & blockages in green power deployment across the world’s leading nations.

This decade, the consultant predicts, Britain’s growth in green electricity output will average only 2.9% every year, slower than France on 3.1%, and seven other top ecoonomies.

In 2022, the study reveals, installed renewables generation capacity per head of UK population stood at only 0.9kW, lower than the EU-27 average of 1.4kW per head, and exactly half the green power capacity of both Germany and France.  Even China, with its population of 1.425 billion more than twenty-one times the UK’s 67.2 million, logged 0.8kW in green potential per head.

Britain’s government has no concerted answer, the report notes, to renewables growth programmes such as the US’s Inflation Reduction Act, with its $216 billion in investment sweeteners this decade, or to the EU’s 50-by-50 equivalent.

This February, the EU Commission withdrew for two years state aid curbs on member states wishing to foster technologies in green energy, the report notes.

“Given the current incentive schemes around the world, which are often much more generous than the UK, there is a risk that investment in green energy infrastructure will be pulled from the UK to countries with more attractive regimes”, the Clean Growth Gap notes.

Oxford Economics & Energy UK released their report the day that Rishi Sunak announced the granting of “hundreds” of new licences to pump oil and gas out dwindling North Sea reserves.

Around 247,000 full-time equivalent jobs exist today in Britain’s green energy already, says the report, rocketing by 16.4% in only twelve months to 2021.

“However, unless the government ensures investment in the UK is attractive, the 480,000 jobs that a Net Zero transition is estimated to support by 2030 will not materialise”, says the EnergyUK report.

Conservative MP and former energy minister Chris Skidmore advocated in his January Net Zero review of energy policy creating a joint financing strategy, yoking Whitehall and UK business in financial incentives to bolster green investment.

Yesterday Skidmore lambasted Sunak’s jag towards a fiercer drive to drill for oil. “ This is the wrong decision at precisely the wrong time, when the rest of the world is experiencing record heatwaves”, Skidmore wrote .

“It is on the wrong side of a future economy that will be founded on renewable and clean industries, not fossil fuels”, the forrmer energy minister went on.

“It is on the wrong side of modern voters who will vote with their feet at the next General Election for parties that protect – not threaten – our environment.”

Energy UK chief executive Emma Pinchbeck notes in the Clean Growth Gap that: “At the heart of a successful energy transition is the need to attract investment.

“The scale of the transition and increasingly constrained public finances mean the vast majority of this investment must come from the private sector,” Pinchbeck writes.

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At the 2023 British Renewable Energy awards in London on Friday, the REA unusually honoured two recipients, Jackson and Skidmore, for its Judges Award.

The Conservative former environment minister was cited for his work on his Net Zero Review, commissioned by disgraced former premier Johnson.

Octopus’ founder Jackson was cited for the firm’s work in protecting its customers during two years of Britain’s accelerating cost of energy crisis.

For the second year, the REA’s Future Game Changers Award recognised young and innovative research into the sector

Five PhD students presented their research, with around 250 attendees at the Marriott Grosvenor House hotel voting for a winner.

Priyanka Kumar of Imperial College London, won the award for her research into developing a circular economy through utilising waste produced during the brewing of beer. Thanks to award sponsors Glennmont Partners, she will receive £2000 towards further development of her research.

REA chief executive Dr Nina Skorupska CBE commented:

“Despite the industry facing a challenging year, theses awards have shown those who are resilient in the drive towards Net Zero. With the brilliant work showcased, we are truly inspired and energised to keep pushing forward towards a low carbon future.

“We have so much to be proud of as an industry and we congratulate our winners and finalists.”

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Roofs of commercial buildings, offices, distribution hubs & and their surrounding acres of asphalt-covered ground offer vast untapped potential to generate cheap, on-site power from light, as the nation seeks to add to the 1.1 million domestic roofs already benefitting from solar kit.

Jointly led by energy minister Graham Stuart and suppliers’ trade body SolarEnergyUK, the taskforce met for the first time today, in a bid to overcome barriers slowing the spread onto commercial roofs of the quickly deployed, low-cost technology

Absent however from today’s meeting were major property owners and their advisors. A SolarEnergyUK spokesperson promised these would be invited to the taskforce’s working groups, before it ceases operation in February.

LandSec ranks among the UK’s three biggest commercial property owners, by revenue. Its latest sustainability performance figures report – table 16 – that across its retail sites, self-generation from renewables accounted for only 2% of the total 53 million kWh consumed across LandSec-owned shops & supermarkets in 2022.  Barely changed for 3 years, onsite self-generation across LandSec’s retail estate has hovered just above 1 million kWh.

By 2035, ministers intend multiplying Britain’s existing solar capacity nearly five-fold, to 70GW, up from the current estimate of around 15GW. All but 1 per cent of Britain’s solar arrays have been installed since 2010, during the eight years of the Feed-in Tariff subsidy, closed since March 2019 to new registrations.

Low-quality farmland houses the overwhelming share of solar capacity, raising objections from some country-dwellers and the Conservative Right. Now industry backers want to speed and spread array installation to uglier industrial roofs and grey ground asphalt, all easily addressed and far less politically sensitive.

The taskforce emerges from a commitment in Powering Up Britain, the government blueprint released in April outlining the UK’s route to a clean, secure electricity system by 2035.  The paper accepted recommendations for more urgency made in January by Chris Skidmore MP, in his independent review of Britain’s Net Zero goals.

Co-chairing today’s first meeting, energy security minister Stuart declared: “Households across the UK are already doing their bit to provide cleaner, cheaper and more secure energy sources with solar on their roofs.

“With acres of rooftop space on car parks and supermarkets in every community, we can be doing even more.

“This new dedicated taskforce will have a laser-like focus on cutting costs and breaking down the barriers to harnessing the power of the sun in every way we can, all while using a small fraction of this country’s land”.

His taskforce co-chair, Chris Hewett, chief executive of Solar Energy UK pictured right, said: “Installing rooftop solar, whether residential or commercial, is one of the best investments available, greatly enhanced by adding battery storage”.

This March alone, say industry observers, over 19,000 sites received new solar installations, a rate of more than 500 a day.  At this rate, 2023 will see 230,000 new PV systems put in place, beating a record set in 2011, the first year of public subsidy.

“Rates of rooftop installation must double to help hit 70GW by 2035”, Hewett went on, and “the number of solar farms will also have to increase significantly”.

The new solar taskforce counts as members the heads or senior officers of:

• Investors NextEnergy Capita and the UK Infrastructure Bank

• Solar developers Evo Energy, EDF, Lightsource BP and equipment distributor Segen
• The Energy Networks Association

Polls repeatedly confirm solar as the most popular form of power generation among Britain’s public.  After last decade’s cycles of boom and bust, the subsidy-free industry now supports an estimated 11,500 high quality jobs.

Three years of eye-watering electricity tariffs for commercial tenants aid the task-force’s efforts to educate roof owners.

More details on the taskforce here.

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Energy ministry D-ESNZ called for evidence this morning, intended to shape a probable consultation towards widening the remit of the eight year-old Contracts for Difference regime.

As a market intervention promoting low carbon generation, CfDs are acknowledged as an unquestioned success. Securing billions in new investment, they have pushed radically lower the long-term support prices which developers need to erect turbines or build out PV farms.

Now ministers want to find a way to recognise clean power’s harder-to-quantify benefits, such as plugging UK skills gaps, ensuring national energy security and strengthening the supply chains necessary to secure low-carbon equipment & finance.

Since their introduction in 2015, CfDs’ have been judged solely on the bid prices submitted by clean plants such as wind and solar farms.

Emerging from a succession of blind auctions, contract awards guarantee qualifying projects’ financing for 15 years, through the inclusion of compensating ‘floor & ceiling’ margins around a central strike price.  The margins are linked to fluctuations in daily traded values for wholesale power.

Offshore wind has seen the most dramatic falls in guarantees sought. Prices bid per MWh in the now annual CfD auctions tumbled by 70% between 2015 and 2022, according to government figures.

Allocated to projects last July, the CfD regime’s fourth bidding round secured nearly 11GW of clean new capacity.  Last month, renewables investors criticised as “too low” ministers’ commitment of £205 million to the scheme’s fifth allocation round (AR5), due to be divided up later this year.

With CfDs now underpinning 26.1GWp of UK capacity in wind, solar & biomass, the government announced this morning it now seeks early evidence from stakeholders, foreshowing a probable full consultation on re-thinking CfDs.

Ministers know they need to boost clean generation radically, in quest of targets such as its 2021 pledge to decarbonise electricity totally by 2035.

Responding at that time, independent analysts Cornwall Insight calculated the goal requires offshore wind capacity to more than quadruple, from around 10GW now to 44GW by 2035. Onshore turbines would need to increase too by at least 14GW, to between 30GW and 44GW. A doubling of solar’s current 15GW would also be required.

Observers have argued that the wider economic benefits already delivered by Britain’s surge in renewables deployment have not been recognised.  Earlier this year in his government-commissioned review of energy policy, backbench MP Chris Skidmore argued that ‘softer’ factors, such as clean generation’s enhancement of UK energy security, should be acknowledged and compensated.

Tim Pick, recently the government’s recent advocate in Whitehall for offshore wind, echoed Skidmore’s pleas for reform earlier this month.

Announcing today’s call for evidence, D-ESNZ minister of state Graham Stuart said:  “Our flagship Contracts for Difference scheme has been hugely successful.

“Now we want to go further to ensure we maximise the scheme’s potential to improve energy security and ensure developers can make the necessary investment in supply chains and innovation, which will ultimately make for a stronger sector and help our economy to grow”.

“This potential reform to the scheme.. presents a solution to grow the renewable energy supply chain as we accelerate our energy transition plans to power more of Britain from Britain.”

The proposed reforms dovetail into Whitehall’s attempts to adjust the CfD scheme in line with

Recent offshore wind champion Tim Pick welcomed the ministry’s move.  “As noted in my recent report, price-only CfD auctions have created a strong driver for innovation, “ he said.

“But there is a need in the current climate to consider how to better develop new supply chains and associated jobs.

“The current global context arguably provides the justification for considering a more nuanced approach as part of a wider package of measures, especially as we seek to seize a first-mover advantage in the deployment of floating offshore wind technology at scale.”

For power generators represented by Energy UK, deputy director Adam Berman said: “The Contracts for Difference (CfD) programme has played a key role in ensuring the UK’s position as a global leader in low carbon technologies.

But factors such as inflation, commodity price increases, and pressure from international competition mean that the UK will have to continue working hard to pull in the investment required to reach our Net Zero and energy security goals”.

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The former energy minister was asked by short-lived D-BEIS secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg to review goals and methods by which Britain should meet its legally enforceable target of balancing carbon dioxide emissions and containment by 2050.

In his Mission Zero report out today, Skidmore recommends capitalising on Britain’s world-leading expertise in low carbon tech to secure economic advantage.

“Without the green economy, there is no economy”, Skidmore bluntly states.

With measures sure to dismay vocal NZ foot-draggers in his own party, the Bristol MP advocates nearly 130 new steps to speed up purging CO2 from the nation.  More on-shore wind farms, tougher home insulation standards, and endorsing the government’s ban on gas boilers in new homes after 2025, are all high on Skidmore’s list.

Axing planning laws which obstruct low carbon innovations, and uniting communities & local councils in launching at least one Trailblazer Net Zero City this decade, also feature.

Low carbon businesses and their UK supply chains sustained 400,000 jobs in 2020, earning a combined turnover estimated at £41.2 billion.  The MP points out that the Johnson’s administration’s continuing Energy Security Strategy and its Net Zero Strategy aim to leverage £100 billion of extra private investment, on the path to creating an additional 480,000 British jobs by 2030.

Skidmore frames his reforms by topic, including :

• establishing an Office for Net Zero Delivery, responsible for placing delivery at the heart of government thinking
• Establishing this year a financing strategy across Whitehall with a bias towards spurring green spending by government & industry
• Using infrastructure, including extending Ofgem’s powers to speed connection of already cheaper onshore wind and solar to the grid
• Pulling policy levers to advance network adaptations & developments favouring new industry inputs such as hydrogen and stored CO2
• Targeting a ‘Help to Grow Green’ campaign at SMEs, informing them on how to plan and invest

• Engaging consumers and businesses with a standardised approach to ecolabelling of products, and a Net Zero Charter mark, acknowledging ‘best in class’ achievement by firms

Over 1,800 submissions and 50 roundtables with financiers, enterprises, technologists and environmentalists went into Skidmore’s Mission Zero report

Its first part quantifies the benefits to individuals and Britain’s economy of an accelerated drive towards Net Zero. Its second sets out a roadmap for how government and industry can exploit the goal’s opportunities, and catalyse action in individual sectors of the economy, such as enhancing the role of local authorities

Lord Nick Stern, lead author of the economic review which inspired Labour’s 2008 Climate Change Act, highlighted how the UK is well-placed to benefit from the increasing demand for net-zero goods and services

“The review argues convincingly that the transition to a net-zero economy is the growth opportunity of the 21st century”, said Stern.

“It also correctly highlights the critical importance of government by providing clarity, certainty, consistency and continuity of policy. I hope the Prime Minister and his government will respond to the review with the urgency and scale required”.

For the Aldersgate Group of environmentally progressive businesses and financiers, executive director Nick Molho said:

“The Skidmore Review is absolutely right to emphasise that the net zero transition is a major pro-business and pro-investment opportunity.

“Its recommendations are based on an impressively comprehensive engagement with businesses and civil society. The government should use this review to produce an updated and strengthened Net Zero Strategy early this year”.

Energy and business secretary Grant Shaps added “I am grateful to Chris– the man who signed our climate commitments into law – for his report. It offers a range of ideas and innovations for us to consider as we work to grasp the opportunities from green growth”.

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