How will the Autumn 2024 budget impact the renewable energy sector?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

On 30th October the autumn 2024 budget was officially announced; the very first under the new labour government.

Controversial for some, the autumn budget detailed significant updates to planned investments designed to support the UK's transition to renewable energy and Net Zero goals.

What’s in the budget?

Significant investments in GB Energy

Of note, the autumn budget announced significant investment in GB Energy, Labour’s ‘publicly owned energy company’, of £125 million - ringfenced to establish and support the early operations of the company which intends to invest heavily in renewable energy initiatives over the next 5 years.

Energy efficiency & decarbonisation of household energy

Alongside this, Labour have used the autumn 2024 budget to pledge £3.4 billion to improve the energy efficiency and decarbonisation of household energy, alongside supporting the growth of the heat pump manufacturing supply chain here in the UK.

The growth of CCUS and hydrogen projects

£3.9 billion has also been pledged to support Track-1 Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage projects across 2025 - 2026 as part of a broader £20 billion funding commitment to CCUS initiatives.

With this, the UK government have announced that ‘commercial agreements’ have already been reached; sitting alongside the establishment of contracts for 11 green hydrogen producers.

Acceleration of EV charging points across the UK

What’s more, Labour used the autumn 2024 budget to announce a £200 million investment in EV charging points across the UK.

Is this the best use of funding for the industry?

Whilst this is, of course, exciting for the renewable energy industry - seeing so much government investment being injected into both new and established initiatives and projects - ia this really the best use of funding for the industry over the next 5 years?

There are very well-known challenges and complexities that come with Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage initiatives in the UK, including elevated project costs and an already saturated market.

What’s more, as recently as August this year, it was announced that the UK government’s goal to install 300,000 new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across Britain by 2030 was falling behind by thousands per month, meaning that, in order to reach this goal within the next 5 years, significant work still needs to be done.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see what changes this autumn 2024 budget brings to the UK renewable energy industry in reality over the next few years and whether, with investment, positive changes will be made to securing Britain’s green future.