The UK will not face blackouts under Labour’s proposed shake-up of energy supply, Ed Miliband has said, as he unveiled plans to boost clean power by the end of the decade.
The energy secretary insisted the transition away from fossil fuels was “unstoppable.”
Miliband has beensetting out the government’s “clean power 2030” plan , including measures to boost the UK’s renewable energy supply such as building canopies of solar panels on outdoor car parks.
The blueprint includes wide-ranging measures to speed up planning decisions on clean energy projects, unblock the queue of projects waiting to connect to the grid and empowering the energy secretary to have the final say on major infrastructure such as giant onshore wind farms.
Speaking on Friday, Miliband denied there was a risk of blackouts in a clean power system if the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine.
“That’s why you have a strategic reserve of gas-fired power stations, why you have, for example, long-duration energy storage, why you have batteries, why you have nuclear,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“You have a range of things on the system to absolutely ensure security of supply. And it’s a largely renewables-based system, but it’s not an only renewables-based system.”
The government wants to wean the country off its dependence on fossil fuels, which was laid bare when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused British energy bills to soar to record highs.
Energy industry and environmental groups broadly welcomed the plan, with the latter urging the government against investing in carbon capture projects at the expense of supporting renewable energy development.
The plans come as low wind and solar power generation forced Britain to rely heavily on burning gas and wood pellets. As of Thursday, about 65% of Britain’s electricity was being generated from gas and biomass, with only 5.3% coming from wind.
Miliband told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the transition to clean energy was “unstoppable” even in the face of the US turning back towards fossil fuels under Donald Trump.
He was asked what was the point of Labour’s plans when it was estimated that the US would wipe out emissions reduction efforts by other countries.
“The point of this is that we’re doing the right thing, not just for climate reasons.” It is also about energy security, he said. “This is about what the country’s gone through, is going through from the cost-of-living crisis that was caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“This is about giving us energy security. And by the way, on climate this transition is unstoppable. Whatever one government or one country or even one president does, this is an unstoppable transition.”
Among the measures covered by the plan was confirmation that onshore windfarms will be brought back into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project regime in England, which streamlines planning processes for important and large-scale projects.
This would make it easier to progress onshore farms larger than 100MW, which in some cases require hundreds of acres of land.
Miliband told BBC Breakfast he could bypass local opposition to wind turbines as energy secretary as the government seeks to decarbonise the grid.
Asked if he would have the ultimate say as energy Secretary if there was a big pushback from locals for wind turbines, he said: “Yes, that’s correct.”
“My message to local people is, people should have a say.”
