In part two of this series, we consider the Party positions on the UK’s future energy mix to meet Net Zero by 2050.
Labour
Clean energy by 2030 is Labour’s second manifesto mission. Labour pledges to double onshore wind, triple onshore solar and quadruple the deployment of offshore wind by 2030 (against what baseline deployed figure we are unsure). To realise this pledge, Labour will establish the publicly owned Great British Energy company which will, in Labour’s words, install thousands of onshore wind, solar and hydropower projects. The company will be met with £8.3bn of investment over the next parliament and will partner with energy companies, co-operatives and local authorities to ensure benefits are realised at a local level.
In terms of non-renewable generation, Labour commits to constructing new nuclear plants (inclusive of Hinckley Point C and Sizewell C) whilst also pledging to phase out the use of gas power but pledging to:
- Not revoke or issue new oil and gas licences; and
- Keep a strategic reserve (of gas power) should renewables and nuclear not be sufficient.
The Conservatives
Further annual licensing rounds for oil and gas production from ‘our own North Sea’ is a pledge of the Conservatives. This pledge is met with a commitment to support the development of new gas power stations together with a new gigawatt nuclear plant at Wylfa to prevent power blackouts. The Conservatives also pledge to triple offshore wind capacity (against which baseline deployed figure is unclear) together with the development of carbon capture storage clusters in the Northwest of England and the North of Wales.
The Conservatives will ‘support solar in the right places’ which is not ‘on our best agricultural land’ – or where solar is clustered. The Party’s position on agricultural land appears to be a continuation of the position taken within the current energy National Policy Statements.
The Liberal Democrats
The Lib Dems seek to remove existing policy restrictions on new solar and wind proposals. Uniquely, the Lib Dems see tidal and wave powered technologies as being technologies of the future and are minded to support the investment and innovation of the technologies. The Lib Dems will promote investment in green hydrogen, pumped storage and Battery Energy Storage Systems to add energy resilience. In furthering energy security, the Lib Dems pledge to build more interconnectors with neighbouring countries.
The Greens
The Greens pledge to drive fossil fuels from the UK’s energy portfolio. In this push, the Greens expect wind to provide for 70% of the UK’s electricity needs by 2030. By 2035, the Greens want to deliver 80GW of offshore wind, 53GW of onshore wind and 100GW of solar. The Greens do not see nuclear as part of the UK’s future energy mix and are wanting to remove nuclear energy entirely.
Reform UK
Reform UK considers wind and solar to be unreliable sources of energy and are of the view it has destroyed the UK’s energy security. To bring about secure energy, Reform UK pledges to fast-track licences for North Sea oil and gas extraction together with a two-year tester of shale gas licences on testing sites. Reform UK also considers nuclear energy, combined cycle gas turbines and clean coal mining to be constituent parts of a cleaner energy portfolio.
Summary
The Greens are the most aspirational of the parties. They anticipate that renewables will meet the UK’s more immediate energy needs but, significantly, do not reference the need for grid balancing technologies. The Lib Dems are not far behind the Greens in aspirations, but they have made important reference to the need to store generated electricity for times where the wind is not strong, or the sun does not shine. The Lib Dems have therefore built in more resiliency into their manifesto than the Greens.
The greenness of Labour’s manifesto has strong aspirations for the deployment of renewables and target dates to match. They couple this with the construction of new nuclear power stations and the phasing out of gas power – the latter being a transitional approach which would utilise generation on-demand.
The Conservatives appear to be covering all options. In one hand, they commit to the extraction and burning of oil and gas where it is UK-led. In the other, the Conservatives intend on making use of carbon capture technologies to, presumably, offset the burning of these gasses. At the same time, the Conservatives continue to support wind and solar developments albeit with caveats.
Reform UK pledges to extract oil and gas from the North Sea, and build new nuclear and gas-powered power stations, resembling a return to the energy mix of the 1990s and 2000s.
