Octopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson warned that the UK’s electricity market is built for a fossil fuel era that no longer exists during a conversation with The Independent’s Editor-in-Chief, Geordie Greig, during our Climate 100 event.
"Our grids don't fit the pattern of our generation" today, he said, noting that Scotland now generates three times more wind power than it currently uses. Rather than spending huge amounts of money extending the grid south to move that power to demand centres in England, Mr Jackson suggested that the country should instead move the demand north.
Mr Jackson – whose company is now the UK’s largest household energy supplier – called for data centres to be built in Scotland to soak up the country's surplus wind power, arguing that Britain's outdated grid infrastructure is forcing bill-payers to foot an increasingly costly bill for electricity the country cannot use.
