Great British Energy and Crown Estate partner to ‘turbo charge’ energy independence
Martin Shipton
A major partnership aimed at harnessing cheaper clean energy for the benefit of consumers has been announced between the newly established publicly owned company Great British Energy and The Crown Estate.
The Crown Estate, which has a £16bn portfolio of land and seabed across Wales, England and Northern Ireland, operates independently and returns its profits to the UK Government, which says it brings long-established expertise to the partnership, as well as new investment and borrowing powers.
At the same time, it’s said that Great British Energy will bring the critical strategic industrial policy that the state can provide, as well as its own ability to invest.
The Crown Estate estimates this partnership will lead to up to 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments, including off the coast of Wales, reaching seabed lease stage by 2030, enough power for the equivalent of almost 20 million homes.
Opportunities
Today’s announcement comes as Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens was at ABP Port Talbot to discuss how Welsh industry will be at the forefront of new investment in clean energy. At the port, she discussed Port Talbot’s involvement in plans to develop large-scale floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea and opportunities to create high-quality employment in future industries like clean energy provision.
Earlier, Ms Stevens was at Tata Steel Port Talbot to continue discussions with steel unions about how the UK Government can support the workforce following Tata’s decision to build an electric arc furnace at the site. Since becoming Welsh Secretary following the July 4 general election, Ms Stevens has chaired the Tata Steel / Port Talbot Transition Board for the first time and carried out a series of talks with Tata Steel, steel unions, members of the workforce and businesses in the local supply chain.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that Great British Energy will be headquartered in Scotland and will back energy generation projects in the UK, bringing profits back to the British people. The government is already legislating to give both Great British Energy and The Crown Estate the powers they need to rapidly deliver, with two Bills being introduced in Parliament today.
Sir Keir said: “My government is laser focused on delivering change, to make people better off.
“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 £60bn in investment into the sector, turbocharging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families and business.
“My mission-led government is rolling up our sleeves to deliver for Britain.”
Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said: “We are quickly delivering on our pledge to set up Great British Energy and Wales can now be at the forefront of this investment – building floating offshore wind, bringing down bills and making the country energy secure.
“Wales has the resources and skills to be a powerhouse in cutting edge energy technologies and we will work alongside the Welsh Government to create high-quality jobs in places like Port Talbot and boost the next generation of Welsh industry.”
“Essential”
Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed 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.”
Chief Executive of the Crown Estate 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.
The UK Government said Great British Energy will have five key functions:
* Project development – leading projects through development stages to speed up their delivery, whilst capturing more value for the British public;
* Project investment – investing in energy projects alongside the private sector, helping get them off the ground;
* Local Power Plan – supporting local energy generation projects through working with local authorities, combined authorities and communities;
* Supply chains – building supply chains across the UK, boosting energy independence and creating jobs;
* Great British Nuclear – exploring how Great British Energy and Great British Nuclear will work together, including considering how Great British Nuclear functions will fit with Great British Energy.
The partnership will see the public sector taking on a new role undertaking additional early development work for offshore wind projects. This will ensure, says the UK Government, that future offshore wind development has lower risk for developers, enabling projects to build out faster after leasing and crowding in private sector investment. It will also help boost new technologies such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, wave and tidal energy.
It comes as the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has published details of the company’s objective. It says that families across the UK have suffered during the cost-of-living crisis, as our over-reliance on fossil fuel markets was exploited by Putin. Great British Energy is part of the government’s plans for clean power by 2030, so families and businesses are never left vulnerable again to spiking global prices.
The Crown Estate has already helped the UK to become a global leader in the offshore wind sector, and is currently running one of the world’s largest commercial scale floating wind leasing programmes in the Celtic Sea between Wales and Ireland. This partnership will accelerate that leadership even further.
Crown Estate
The Crown Estate is an independent commercial business with a diverse £16bn portfolio that includes urban centres and development opportunities; one of the largest rural holdings in the country; Regent Street and St James’s in London’s West End; and Windsor Great Park. As well as managing the seabed and much of the coastline around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, it plays a major role in the UK’s world leading offshore wind sector as well as emerging offshore technologies.
Established by an Act of Parliament, The Crown Estate occupies a space between the public and private sectors, and returns all its profit to HM Treasury for the benefit of public spending. This has totalled £4bn over the last 10 years.
Plaid Cymru Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts MP responded to the announcements saying: “North Wales has some of the highest energy bills in the UK with bills around £129 a year higher than the UK average. The UK Government’s investment plans largely rely on private investment and they should clearly set out how this will benefit households in Wales, over private companies. Devolution of the Crown Estate is also vital in Wales if we are to ensure that profits made from leasing land for energy projects are retained in Wales, as they are in Scotland.
“While new investment is welcome, the promise of £8.3bn UK-wide public investment over the course of the Parliament is not ambitious enough. At the general election, Plaid Cymru proposed a Green New Deal that would have invested £6bn directly in Wales to develop renewable energy projects, with a strong focus on community and local ownership.
“Today’s partnership also leaves us none the wiser on Labour’s plans to save steel jobs in Wales. The future of steelmaking will be crucial for developing jobs in the renewable energy sector, and the government must make a clear commitment to protect steel jobs.”
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Let the daylight robbery of Welsh resources continue says Labour. Instead of handing back the Crown Estates to Wales and Welsh people Labour are celebrating sucking up our money for the benefit of London, Westminster and the King. For as long as this type of rip off continues Wales will remain the poorest nation in the UK.
Jo Stevens should hang her head in shame.
We should be able to expose Labour’s plans and eject them from office from the Senedd as we did to the Conservatives on July 4th 2024. This has gone on for too long Conservatives and Labour have continued to remove the wealth and power from Cymru in favour of England/UK. Watch out for the new con-trick from the UK it is called ReformUK – the UK have this new trick under the table to continue their colonisation of Wales. The same as the Con-Lab conspiracy – Reform UK will remove wealth and power from Wales. We need our own economy… Read more »
Agree. Spot on
Sounds good but the big concern is that nothing much will change, profits and well paid jobs will still go to companies based overseas. London governments have never paid much attention to creating the conditions that enable the existence of thriving indigenous businesses. Lots of grants money spent but no real underlying strategy.
“Managing the sea bed’ – nice work if you can get it!
Who’s the minister for Striped Paint?
Three things shout out for me. There seems to be little enthusiasm on display by Labour to halt the blast closure, they want “low carbon recycled steel” for the turbines components in spite of previous rhetoric. Where is the plan for the distribution network, current restrictions on network are around the electrical safety protecting the network, new networks will be needed, is the built environment going to pay the price or will we see land seized to bury the network with the enormous cost that entails. What measures and what discussions have they had to decouple renewables from the fossil… Read more »
Sadly Port Talbot will be closed because it is beyond salvageable. I suspect a totally new plant can be built elsewhere more cost effectively than updating Port Talbot:
TATA are opening a massive blast furnace plant in India.
How will this work with Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru?
This will end in tears as the general public will never receive anything from this, all profits will be consumed by the business itself wages costs expenses land leases Etc. Pity it’s a fair idea but greed will consume everything as soon as international companies get involved. Smaller schemes to a postcode area may be feasible selling electricity to the grid then returning profits within the postcode area????¿??? It’s an idea.
About 3 years before I retired from the energy and low carbon area in 2020. A number of local authority Energy and Sustainability managers approached the Welsh govt to try to establish such a project as you describe, the Local authorities and the other public sector bodies involved in the energy purchasing body, floated the idea of being a long term customer for such projects where benefits went back to communities and LA’s had certainty of price to schools etc. Approaches were made to the LA pension funds as well on possible investing in these projects. At the time there… Read more »
Or even no benefits locally
How come we are supplying English needs….
Build your windfarms off the English coast & all the associated pylons needed…
Why the overwhelming urge by the English unionists to name everything “Great British [whatever]”? Are they making up for something e.g. a lack of self-confidencen?
…….and remind Wales of our colonisation.
So the deal is to gift a Swedish firm some cash using Welsh taxpayers money to build a wind farm off Pembrokeshire, recover the amount under a lease called Crown Estate with revenues to spruce up Buckingham Palace, then invoice the difference to Welsh electricity bills. Call it Great British, and Starmer and Miliband can wear Union Jack ties.
It always amazes me how people like Jo Stevens, a Trade Union Lawyer by profession, suddenly becomes an expert in the production of steel, just by being given a job as Secretary of State for Wales. What she should do is ensure the profit from the Crown Estate in Wales is used for the benefit of the people of Wale, but she won
t because she is Starmers puppet in Wales, another Gething, but in a more powerful position.There’s a ‘wetland centre’ which consists of a huge acreage of land just east of Machynys, near Llanelli. It’s owned by the King of England in the name of the Crown Estate and ‘managed’ by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust a charity headquartered in Gloucestershire. They charge £10 a pop to enter the site to see local wildlife, having obtained £1000 from Carmarthenshire Council who had to pay for signage on the cycle path that passes by and £37,000 grant directly from the Welsh Government last year. Great British Ponds populated by Great British ducks. More grants needed.
It’s making me feel sick the rape of the fair country part two wake up Wales
More exploitation of Wales by Whitehall where this democratically unbalance United Kingdom means some are more equal than others. And it not that I’m hostile to clean energy projects, far from it, it’s the decision-making over infrastructure builds including large wind turbines should be made in Wales not London. It’s our land, our coastline, and those mega turbines that tower above the landscape & coastline also affect the Welsh landscape, especially those living in the vicinity, so our Senedd Cymru should debate & decide the pros & cons not have it forced on us by Westminster so that power created… Read more »