King Charles (Image: GETTY)
King Charles will help lead a new clean energy revolution in Britain.
Millions of homes will be powered by new offshore wind farms that are on the Crown Estate which belongs to the Monarch.
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The move, in partnership with the Government’s newly created state-owned energy company, will create thousands of jobs and turn Britain into a "clean energy superpower".
The eco-minded Monarch has asked for profits from the Crown Estate’s wind farm deals to be used for the “wider public good” rather than as extra funding for the Royals.
The Crown Estate estimates the partnership will lead to up to 20 to 30 gigawatts of new offshore wind developments being leased by 2030, enough to power almost 20 million homes.
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Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “This innovative partnership between Great British Energy and the Crown Estate is an important step toward our mission for clean energy by 2030, and bringing down energy bills for good.
“This agreement will drive up to ￡60 billion in investment into the sector, turbocharging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families and businesses.
“My mission-led government is rolling up our sleeves to deliver for Britain.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
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The Crown Estate already had plans to deliver 30GW of renewable offshore wind off the coast of England and Wales by 2030.
But it has now partnered with the Labour Government’s GB Energy scheme “to unleash billions of investment in clean power”.
This includes building more offshore wind farms, and pumping money into new technologies such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, wave and tidal energy.
It is unclear how much of the ￡8.3 billion of taxpayers’ money used for the energy firm will go towards this initiative - which is expected to rake in ￡60 billion of private investment.
GB Energy is set to lead energy projects through development stages to speed up the process, before returning them to private ownership but maintaining a stake.
It could, however, become an operator of such projects over time.
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The Crown Estate owns the vast majority of Britain’s seabed, stretching up to 12 nautical miles from the mainland, and leases parts of it to wind farm operators.
The Estate has a ￡16 billion portfolio of land and seabed, and returns its profits to the Government, a small portion of which goes to the monarchy.
Much of its ￡1.1 billion profit last year came from offshore wind projects, and it is already engaged in a significant push to find and develop new plots of the seabed for companies to build wind turbines on.
But in 2023, King Charles asked for profits from the Crown Estate’s wind farm deals to be used for the “wider public good” rather than as extra funding for the monarchy.
The Crown Estate belongs to the Monarch “in right of the crown” but it is not his private property.
This is the second major announcement from Labour on energy since coming into power earlier this month.
Ed Miliband announced the lifting of an onshore wind ban within days of entering Government.
The Energy Secretary did this by removing two planning barriers announced by David Cameron in 2015.
Mr Miliband said: “Great British Energy comes from a simple idea - that the British people should own and benefit from our natural resources. Investing in clean power is the route to end the UK’s energy insecurity, and Great British Energy will be essential in this mission.
“The agreement with The Crown Estate will lead to more investment, cleaner power, more energy security, and is a statement of intent that it will be a permanent and transformative institution for our country.”
The legislation to create GB Energy will be introduced at Westminster today.
Labour has vowed to create a publicly-owned energy generation company headquartered in Scotland to drive the Government’s goal of making the UK a “clean energy superpower”.
The exact location of the HQ will be revealed “soon”, the Government said.
In a separate Bill, the Crown Estate is set to be given new borrowing powers, confirmed in last week’s King’s Speech, which are designed to help it invest more in preparing its seabeds for offshore wind and other projects.
Under current rules, the Crown Estate cannot use its cash reserves to invest because it must hold them against the prospect of future financial losses.
Crown Estate chief executive Dan Labbad said: “The Crown Estate exists to serve the national interest, including stewarding our natural resources to deliver a decarbonised, energy secure and sustainable future.
“With new powers and by partnering with government, we can drive greater investment into this future for our country, and with it support nature recovery and job creation.”
Green industrialist and founder of Ecotricity Dale Vince said: “Great British Energy is simply a great idea - public ownership of our own renewable energy, for the good of the entire country.
"For too long we’ve allowed private, mostly foreign, interests to reap the benefits, and then allowed foreign markets to set the price we buy the energy back for - some kind of free market madness that. Great to see the new Labour government pick this up and run with it.“
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Claire Coutinho, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, said: “The public has been sold a lie that a Labour government will cut their energy bills by ￡300. Now that they’ve won the election they’ve tried to brush that figure under the carpet, showing us the truth that GB Energy is nothing but a gimmick that will end up costing families, not cutting bills.
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“Labour have already been forced to admit that their flagship energy company won't generate any energy, and now we know it's a financial black hole - funnelling taxpayer's money into reducing risk for multi-million-pound energy companies.
“Labour's entire energy policy puts ideology above the national interest. Their absurd 2030 decarbonisation target will hike bills and ramp up our dependence on batteries and cables from China. They want to kneecap our domestic oil and gas production to import foreign fuel with higher carbon emissions. The Conservatives will hold them to account and make sure that the focus is on cheap bills and secure energy.”
By Jess Ralston, Head of Energy at the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU)
Anyone who has paid an energy bill in the past couple of years knows that the price of gas has shot up, in no small part thanks to Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. That includes gas produced in the North Sea, which is subject to the price set by international markets so is subject to the whims of foreign powers.
Both Labour and the Conservatives went into the last election with ambitious plans to expand the UK’s renewable energy, in no small part because every swoop of a wind turbine means less dependence on foreign energy imports. And Labour won a stonking majority on a manifesto that had clean energy as one its key missions and talking points.
As its plans go further and faster, Labour has hit the ground running – so far, at least.
In its first few weeks the new Government has moved to lift the de facto ban on onshore wind, which is one of the most popular energy generators according to public polling and contrary to what some MPs think. It has pledged to remove obstacles to planning, and now is launching GB Energy, an energy company and investment vehicle that was one of Labour’s most popular policies among voters.
Labour has said that GB Energy’s mission is to speed up the building of British renewables, which is no bad thing given each step towards offshore wind and solar diminishes our reliance on the gas markets that have sent energy bills soaring.
North Sea oil and gas output is in ongoing, inevitable decline, no matter your policy on it - new exploration makes no significant difference to future output levels. Indeed, one new offshore wind farm could generate as much British power as gas from those new licences.
Not only will these new renewables make our electricity more homegrown, it can also do the same for our heating. Gas boilers will increasingly run on foreign gas, whereas electric heat pumps will run increasingly on British renewables. As, of course, can electric cars.
If we don’t install new kit, wind and solar farms and pylons, we’ll simply become more dependent on foreign energy imports. That’s why GB Energy’s focus on speeding projects up by de-risking private finance with co-investment, doing some of the planning and community engagement work makes sense. Plans to invest in more novel technologies like floating wind turbines could also help to incentivise supply chains, manufacturing businesses and the jobs that come with them.
If you’re concerned about the UK’s energy security, you have to focus on building renewables, and fast, given the North Sea’s waning production. And Labour’s starting off strong on delivering its clean energy mission.
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