Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has outlined a comprehensive package of energy and security measures and investments. These measures are aimed at delivering a radical shift in our energy system away from importing expensive, foreign fossil fuels towards cleaner, more affordable UK energy sources.
Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has outlined a comprehensive package of energy and security measures and investments. These measures are aimed at delivering a radical shift in our energy system away from importing expensive, foreign fossil fuels towards cleaner, more affordable UK energy sources. In doing so, the plans will help to grow the economy across the country, supporting almost half a million new green jobs by 2030, creating a strategic advantage in new clean industries, and generating opportunities for UK businesses to export their expertise around the world.
The package is hugely significant for LCCC as it drives forward work in areas where we are advising government on revenue models giving investors more certainty. The path is now clearer to our implementation of Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS), Hydrogen production, the Nuclear Regulated Asset Base (RAB) and greenhouse gas removal technologies.
30 March also marked the start of the fifth Allocation Round of the CfD Scheme with an initial budget of £205million, which supports new British low-carbon electricity generation projects. The CfD scheme has been hugely significant for the UK, enabling the largest operational offshore generation fleet in Europe and the world’s four biggest individual offshore windfarms. That experience has given government and industry participants the confidence to extend the model to the other sectors highlighted today.
The full plans are outlined in the ‘Powering Up Britain - Energy Security Plan’; the measures that are most relevant to LCCC and our schemes include:
- Commitment to Carbon Capture Usage and Storage: The first eight projects announced to progress to negotiations to form the first 2 CCUS clusters, in the North East and North West.
- Backing the first tranche of new green hydrogen production projects: Confirming the first projects from the £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund and the 2 CCUS-enabled hydrogen projects moving forward on the Track-1 clusters.
- Accelerating deployment of renewables: Allocation Round 5 of the of the Contracts for Difference Scheme opens with an initial budget of £205million.
- Great British Nuclear: Launching a competitive process to select the best Small Modular Reactor technologies.
- Mobilising Private investment: Updating the Green Finance Strategy to mobilise investment in net zero, plus investment roadmaps for offshore wind, hydrogen and CCUS.
- Speeding up the planning process to attract investment: Reforming planning to enable the quicker development of energy infrastructure for solar power and offshore wind projects.