The Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP) has launched its 2025 Manufacturing Facility Support Programme (MFSP) with a total funding pool of £2 million. The programme invites applications from UK-registered and operating companies aiming to develop new or expand existing offshore wind manufacturing facilities. Grants of up to £500,000 per project will be awarded to support early-stage, pre-investment activities.
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Revised plans will ease the burden on working people, as the Prime Minister forges a credible, transparent path to net zero that maintains public consent. Ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars will be moved back to 2035 and new policies forcing landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties will be scrapped. The ban on new fossil fuel boilers for certain households will be delayed while cash grants for boiler upgrade schemes will increase by 50% to £7,500 for those who want to transition now.
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The UK is making efforts towards achieving its ambitious 2030 offshore wind (OSW) goal of 50 GW in order to meet its long-term net zero targets. The UK government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), which recently took over the energy portfolio from the former Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), has published documents about its Offshore Coordination Support Scheme (OCSS), which aims to support the development of coordinated offshore wind transmission (OWT) infrastructure.
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The UK is now aiming to achieve complete decarbonisation of the power sector by 2035—a world-leading target. This ambition is even more impressive given that power demand in the UK looks set to halt its decline and begin to rise rapidly—doubling by 2050—as more of the UK economy electrifies. There is no single cause for the rapid decline of coal in the UK. Instead, the journey from fossil-fuel dependent to renewables champion can be attributed to five main factors: setting of ambitious short-term targets, the changing economics of coal, policy support for wind power, market reforms, and investments and innovations in the grid.
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On 17th October 2022, the UK government announced that it would U-turn on its pledge to freeze all household energy prices for two years. The Energy Price Guarantee previously meant that an average household might have expected to pay £2,500 per annum in over the next two years. With the Guarantee now set to end in April 2023, average household energy bills could rise to £3,500– £4,300 next year.
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The new UK Prime Minister’s most urgent task is to deal with the unprecedented rise in energy bills scheduled for October. Long-term energy security solutions like energy efficiency, new renewables, and the electrification of heating and industrial processes will be essential. But lowering bills quickly is the most critical concern. This E3G briefing outlines how the government can remove levies from bills without damaging important fuel poverty programmes or investor confidence.
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In front of the world at COP26, the UK committed to delivering a world-leading net zero aligned financial centre last year. The UK financial sector, currently ranked first globally as a green financial market, is well placed to take advantage of the opportunities that this presents – potentially worth over £1 trillion to UK businesses by 2030. Unlocking these opportunities requires a plan that brings in the key actors across the financial system – including the UK financial regulators.
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The UK Government announced its high profile ‘net zero’ policy in June 2019 and swiftly made it legally binding. Stakeholders called for a robust UK Net Zero Strategy to provide the detailed policies and measures needed to achieve these targets. On 18 July 2022, the High Court declared that the UK’s Net Zero Strategy is, in part, unlawful and ordered the Secretary of State to revise it by March 2023.
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With the Government of UK looking to introduce restrictions on the use of diesel engine vehicles to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, bus operators have begun acting to future proof their business models and to improve profitability. They have been entering into partnerships with the government, local authorities, manufacturers, and research institutes to develop innovative technology and to plan their transition to zero-emission fleets.
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Unlike many in Europe, our energy comes from a variety of highly diverse, reliable, and secure sources. On electricity, our diversity of supply is a great strength. We have the world’s second largest installed capacity of offshore wind – only just beaten by China in fact only a year ago. We have onshore wind, we have solar power, we have nuclear, we have hydroelectric power, and of course we’ve got interconnectors between us and countries in Europe.
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The UK continues to prioritise Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) as its primary trade strategy. To avoid undermining its international climate strategy, and losing public support for its trade strategy, the UK’s approach to trade deals needs to be better aligned with its climate objectives. To achieve this, the UK should pioneer climate cooperation agreements inside and alongside its trade deals.
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By introducing additional tax relief limited to oil and gas investment, Treasury incentivises a slower transition and pushes companies to allocate profits towards new oil and gas developments instead of renewables. If this revenue had instead been spent on supporting energy efficiency measures it would have the potential to lift households out of energy poverty for good.
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Ofgem has predicted that the energy price cap will hit £2,800 in October. The UK government has provided £37bn this year just to keep people afloat. Investing now in long-term, enduring solutions can prevent similar sums from being required up to 2030 and potentially beyond. The government could act now to reliably lower bills by launching a national mission to upgrade the UK’s cold and leaky homes.
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Energy production was low, down 14 per cent compared to last year and the lowest level in over 50 years. Electricity output from renewable technologies dropped significantly because of less favourable weather conditions in 2021. Wind dropped 14 per cent, with further falls in both hydro and solar generation. Renewables share of generation dropped from a record high of 43.1 to 39.3 per cent despite a small increase in capacity.
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United Kingdom based independent renewable power company Anesco has secured a £12m revolving credit facility from Santander UK. Anesco plans to use these funds for expansion in the UK and Europe. This finance will support its pipeline of various renewable energy projects which includes five battery storage projects and three solar farms, that are at the ready-to-build stage.
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Government can supercharge renewables deployment this decade by ensuring all relevant bodies have a mandate aligned with the UK’s 2035 net zero power system target, scaling up support to attract renewable supply chain investment to the UK, and setting ambitious interim targets for renewables technologies. While existing oil and gas production should continue to be used, future licensing rounds will not play a part in eliminating UK’s reliance on Russian gas due to the long time to bring projects online.
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There is a growing recognition that all economic policy, including trade policy, will need to play a role in the transition to net zero. However, the precise role of UK trade in helping to achieve net zero targets remains less well defined in comparison with other areas. The UK is still developing its early trade strategy, having only gained an independent trade policy after leaving the EU.
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Cambridge Power and Brookfield Renewable have signed a framework agreement to develop a portfolio of 985 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities across the UK. The agreement covers more than 800 MW of fully permitted BESS assets and 185 MW of co-located solar for investment and this is planned to be deployed over the next five years.
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This briefing clarifies how international dynamics in the global gas market have resulted in record-high energy prices for consumers this year, and why increasing domestic supply of fossil gas is far from the simple fix to this problem that is pushed by some. As a result, the long-term solutions to the energy price crisis lie in reducing the UK’s demand for gas through the scale-up of energy efficiency programmes and clean energy investment.
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The cap on UK energy bills is set for an unprecedented increase in April 2022, likely pushing millions more into energy poverty. Despite claims by a small group of Conservative MPs in the ‘Net Zero Scrutiny Group’, the energy crisis has almost nothing to do with green subsidies. The principal reason is the skyrocketing price of fossil gas. Previously Ember forecasted that the gas price spike will add £29 billion to UK electricity bills in 2022.
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