The UK government is to commission a report into how it can reduce the cost of energy including offshore wind as part of its long-awaited industrial strategy.
BEIS’ ‘Building our Industrial Strategy’ green paper will examine the “the scope to use existing instruments to support further reductions in the cost of offshore wind once current commitments have been delivered.”
The review will also assess growth from the energy sector and the industrial opportunities for the UK.
The review will inform a long-term roadmap to minimise business energy costs to be set out later this year.
BEIS said the report will also examine how to support energy efficiency and how the UK government “can best work with Ofgem to ensure markets and networks operate as efficiently as possible in a low carbon system”.
BEIS Secretary Greg Clark said: “We want to build an industrial strategy that addresses long-term challenges to the UK economy.
“Our aim is to improve living standards and economic growth by increasing productivity and driving growth across the whole country.”
The government has also asked its chief scientific adviser Sir Mark Walport to consider the case for a new research institution as a focal point for work on battery technology, energy storage and grid technology.
Walport will report back in early 2017.
RenewableUK executive director Emma Pinchbeck said: “Energy costs are crucial for all industries, so as this reboot for Britain takes shape, with renewable energy now a mainstream power source, we need to maximise the benefits we all get from the investments that have been made in modernising the way we generate electricity.”
The green paper consultation closes on 17 April.
Image: Greg Clark (BEIS)
