Ofgem to fast-track £4bn investment in UK electricity grid Energy Ofgem has announced plans to fast-track around £4bn of investment into expanding the UK’s electricity transmission network as it looks to decarbonise the grid by 2030. The Advanced Procurement Mechanism (APM) will enable signed-off projects to “break ground as soon as planning approval is granted,” the energy regulator said in a statement on Thursday. It [...]
Grangemouth: Green future for oil refinery needs £3.5bn, report finds Politics Delivering a green future for the Grangemouth oil refinery will require around £3.5bn in private investment, a report has found. The long-awaited Project Willow study, which itself cost £1.5m, sets out nine options for the future of the industrial cluster in central Scotland. Hundreds of jobs are set to be lost this year when the [...]
Treasury on the hunt for new National Wealth Fund boss The Treasury announced on Wednesday that it had begun searching for a new chief executive to lead the recently established National Wealth Fund. The policy bank’s current boss John Flint will exit the role this summer after overseeing the institution’s rebrand from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB). Flint, who is a former HSBC group chief [...]
Ed Miliband in China for climate meetings amid new investment approach March 14, 2025 Energy secretary Ed Miliband is in China for climate meetings in a bid to restart the government’s environmental dialogue with the Asian nation. The energy security and net zero secretary will meet Chinese counterparts Wang Hongzhi and Huang Runqiu to pursue efforts to work jointly to slash emissions, the government said. It marks the first [...]
What’s in the government’s new planning reform bill? March 10, 2025 The government has promised to unleash the biggest building boom in a generation through its wide-ranging planning reform bill, which will head into parliament today. Drafted in response to a crisis which has seen a massive shortage of affordable housing, as well as rising house prices and rents to due undersupply, the bill intends to [...]
Drax ‘misled’ government over wood sourcing, ex lobbyist alleges March 7, 2025 Drax’s former public affairs lead has accused the company of “misleading the public, government and its regulator” over its sourcing of wood for biomass pellets. Rowaa Ahmar was employed by Drax in 2022 amid allegations in a BBC Panorama documentary it had sourced wood from environmentally important forests in Canada instead of using sawdust and [...]
Ministers mull GB Energy spending cuts in blow to Ed Miliband March 7, 2025 The government is considering cutting funding for GB Energy in June’s spending review in a major blow to energy secretary Ed Miliband. State-owned GB Energy has been tasked with decarbonising the electricity grid by investing in and operating clean power projects. The government pledged £8.3bn over the course of the current parliament. However, it was [...]
Ed Miliband’s net zero obsession is harming the green energy transition February 27, 2025 Every industry expert agrees that Ed Miliband’s target for a 95 per cent clean energy grid is unattainable and the sacrifices required will alienate the public. There is a better way, says Simon Clarke It is a deep irony that Ed Miliband, who as energy secretary gave us the Climate Change Act in 2008, risks [...]
Plans for £1bn battery gigafactory and over 1,000 new jobs revealed February 26, 2025 Plans to create a £1bn 10GWh battery gigafactory in Coventry which will create over 1,000 jobs by 2030 have been revealed. Volklec, a battery manufacturing start-up which set up shop in the West Midlands city last year, has entered into an exclusive license agreement with China-based Far East Battery (FEB). The deal will see Volklec [...]
Ofgem: Energy price cap will rise in April February 25, 2025 Households will pay an extra £9.25 for their electricity each month from April as Ofgem increases its energy price cap by 6.4 per cent. The price cap – which sets a maximum rate per unit and standing charge that can be billed to customers for their energy use – will rise by £111 for an [...]