The Labour Government’s Great British Energy Bill has had a second reading in Parliament earlier today.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s opening speech to Parliament of the bill stated that
Denmark, Sweden, Norway and France through their own state-owned companies own British energy assets, revealing that the City of Munich owns more of the UK’s offshore wind capacity than the British government.
He said: “And in the auction results I announced on Tuesday, the largest two offshore wind projects to win a contract will be built by Orsted, the Danish state-owned company.”
While welcoming the investment, Miliband said: “Do we think there should be a British equivalent of state-owned energy generation companies like Orsted, Vattenfall, Statkraft and EDF investing in our infrastructure?
“We have a simple proposition: if it’s right for the Danes, the French, the Norwegians, the Swedes to own British energy assets, it’s right for the British people to do so as well.
“And that’s why we fought the election on this crucial principle: the British people should have a right to own and benefit from our natural resources.”
Miliband told Parliament Great British Energy will invest in and own clean energy projects – particularly in leading edge technologies such as floating offshore wind – working with the private sector and taking stakes in the projects it supports.
Great British Energy will invest across a range of clean energy technologies, using its £8.3bn capitalisation, with the chair appointed by government but the company able to move at pace with operational independence.
Great British Energy will deliver a Local Power Plan – working with local authorities, combined authorities and communities to deliver the “biggest expansion of support” for community-owned energy in British history.