The UK government has pledged to accelerate deployment of renewables by introducing a series of new sector targets and promising to slash permit approval timelines.
Boris Johnson’s government increased the 2030 offshore wind goal from 40GW to 50GW in the long-awaited British Energy Security Strategy released on Thursday night.
London has promised this will be underpinned by new planning reforms to cut the approval times for new projects from four years to one.
It said this would be part of an “overall streamlining which will radically reduce the time it takes for new projects to reach construction stages while improving the environment”.
Included in the goal is a new floating offshore wind aspiration of 5GW, up from 1GW previously.
There is no new commitment to onshore wind in the blueprint. Instead, the Conservative government said it “will be consulting on developing partnerships with a limited number of supportive communities who wish to host” projects “in return for guaranteed lower energy bills”.
Meanwhile, officials want the UK’s current 14GW of solar capacity to grow to up to 70GW by 2035 while half of a new 10GW hydrogen target is to come from green hydrogen, with excess offshore wind cited as a generation source.
A major expansion of nuclear as well as new oil and gas licensing is also being proposed.
Johnson said: “We’re setting out bold plans to scale up and accelerate affordable, clean and secure energy made in Britain, for Britain – from new nuclear to offshore wind – in the decade ahead.
“This will reduce our dependence on power sources exposed to volatile international prices we cannot control, so we can enjoy greater energy self-sufficiency with cheaper bills.”
Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng added: “We have seen record high gas prices around the world. We need to protect ourselves from price spikes in the future by accelerating our move towards cleaner, cheaper, home-grown energy.
“The simple truth is that the more cheap, clean power we generate within our borders, the less exposed we will be to eye watering fossil fuel prices set by global markets we can’t control.
“Scaling up cheap renewables and new nuclear, while maximising North Sea production, is the best and only way to ensure our energy independence over the coming years.”