England & Wales work together to make Britain a 'clean energy superpower'                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Over the summer, it was announced that the UK Prime Minister and Welsh First Minister were working together to make Britain a ‘clean energy superpower’; aiming to grow the economy, create jobs, boost skills, and strengthen the UK’s energy independence.

The alliance came alongside a highly publicised visit to a wind farm in West Wales that received Welsh Government funding.

During this visit, which was the First Minister’s first official visit with the Prime Minister since being appointed, both pledged close cooperation to unleash the benefits of a publicly owned energy company; the Prime Minister seized this opportunity to deliver Great British Energy (GB Energy), the government’s flagship ‘investment vehicle’ for clean energy projects.

Wales seems to very much be leading the way in the construction of brand new wind farms, having built Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru – a company owned by the Welsh Government - in just 12 months; and a company that is on course to produce 1 GW of clean energy by 2040 – enough to power up to a million homes in Wales.

What’s more, the Welsh Government is also already working with The Crown Estate to unlock 1,000 km2 of seabed which is anticipated to produce up to 4.5 GW of renewable electricity via new wind farms.

However, that’s not all for The Crown Estate as it has recently signed a deal with the Energy Secretary to build even more offshore wind farms and could leverage up to £60 billion in investment.

This has been a huge step forward for the government’s clean energy movement and the race towards achieving Net Zero by 2030, for sure, but there are still a number of areas where infrastructure and policy need to improve in order for new projects to really succeed or where, actually, the government could benefit from diversifying their approach to renewable and clean energy.

Examples of these being the urgent upgrades to the National Grid that are required, and the backlog of ‘ready-to-go’ new renewable energy projects that are awaiting connection and have been given connection dates 10 - 15 years in the future.

Not to mention the wealth of other, established or emerging renewable and clean energy solutions that are either currently available or being heavily researched such as nuclear energy, green hydrogen and Energy from Waste solutions, alongside a number of CCUS technologies.

A great leap for wind farms, yet leaving other clean and renewable energy solutions somewhat behind.