Great British Energy: Planning for a Greener Britain

The Government vowed to make Britain a clean energy superpower as part of its election campaign. This article focuses on the Government’s initiative to establish Great British Energy, and the barriers within the planning system which will need to be overcome if the Government’s objective is to be achieved.

The Great British Energy Bill was introduced to Parliament in July 2024 to establish a publicly owned clean power company. The company’s key objective is to support Britain in becoming energy independent from other nations (particularly Russia) so that we can enjoy clean, home-grown energy whilst also targeting climate change. Despite the bill still progressing through the House of Lords, five non-executive directors have been appointed to Great British Energy’s start-up board demonstrating the Government’s commitment to the bill becoming law. 

Great British Energy is intended to help accelerate investment in renewable energy by investing in technologies such as wind, solar, tidal, hydrogen, nuclear, and carbon capture. The company will be partnering with the Crown Estate; the partnership aims to unlock 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments, reaching seabed lease stage by 2030 and generating enough power for the equivalent of almost twenty million homes. In addition, the company will support the recently published ‘Clean Power 2030 Action Plan’ by identifying new locations for generation projects on private land, and by leading or co-leading projects through the pre-development phase.

This comes at a time where the Government is eagerly pushing to reform planning policy, to achieve their national housing target of building 1.5 million more homes over the next four years and the additional infrastructure needed to support these homes. 

The following practical aspects of the planning system may impede the Government’s ability to deliver: 

Local authorities’ lack of resource and expertise 

In Spring 2024, the Environmental Audit Committee reported that local authorities generally lack the resources or in-house knowledge to manage the volume of planning applications needed for the rapid growth of clean energy infrastructure. 

As part of the Autumn Budget, the Government announced it would provide £46 million of additional funding to support the recruitment and training of 300 graduates and apprentices into local planning authorities. However, this falls short of even one additional person for each of the stretched 326 local authorities. In what is anticipated to be a big year for the planning system with new legislation and policy being introduced, including the anticipated Planning & Infrastructure Bill (see here for further details), delays and skills gaps from local authorities are only going to be exacerbated without adequate support. 

The application process for development consent orders (“DCO”) is long and complex. 

Substantial energy projects, such as large-scale windfarms, constitute nationally significant infrastructure projects (“NSIPs”) and therefore fall within the DCO regime. DCOs are resource intensive (further stretching local authorities) and currently take on average 4.2 years to obtain^[1]. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is expected to introduce measures to simplify the DCO process (please see here for further details). In practice, we have a long wait ahead before we reap the benefits of a simpler system. 

A renewal of the National Grid 

The Environmental Audit Committee reported that planned renewable energy projects were being “hampered by persistent problems accessing the electricity grid”. Notable issues include long queuing times for projects to connect to the grid because of demand exceeding operator connection capacity as a result of ‘first-come, first served’ approach. The issue of limited capacity has shown no sign of easing since the Environmental Audit Committee’s report ^[2], as some projects reportedly face waiting times “stretching long” into the 2030s to get connected^[3]. However, the ‘first come, first served’ approach is set to be abolished and replaced with the ‘first ready, first connected’ approach in the second quarter of 2025. This new approach should alleviate some of the delays created by so-called zombie projects (stalled projects which are delaying decision-making simply by being ahead in the queue) by placing a focus on connecting clean energy projects to the grid that are ready to go.

As part of the Government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, the Government acknowledges the need to fundamentally reform the process of connecting to the grid, alongside the building of new infrastructure. The Government plans to introduce legislation, when parliamentary time allows, to ensure connection reform aligns with strategic plans and the delivery of Clean Power by 2030 (please see here for further information on the Government’s Clean Power Action Plan). 

The Great British Energy Bill is in the final phase of the committee stage in the House of Lords. For Britain to become a clean energy superpower, a number of different pieces of the energy puzzle will need to come together: resourcing of local authorities, simplification of the consenting regime and updates/improvements to the existing infrastructure of the National Grid. We will have to wait and see how far Great British Energy can deliver on the Government’s ambitions.  

[1] Nationally Significant Infrastructure: action plan for reforms to the planning process - GOV.UK – Published 23 February 2023
[2] https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/45077/documents/223429/default/ - 22 May 2024
[3] Faster grid hook-ups planned for some green energy projects - BBC News dated 18 October 2024