As day-trippers to the British seaside enjoy fish and chips and a bracing paddle, they may notice, as they gaze out to sea, one of the great hidden legacies of this Conservative government: offshore wind power. Turning steadily in the breeze, the vast array of offshore and onshore turbines around Great Britain provide about a quarter of our electricity needs, with almost no carbon emissions and at a cost below imported gas or nuclear generation. They are a national success story. We have the second biggest offshore turbine fleet in the world, behind only China.
The Tory government effectively banned onshore wind turbines in 2015. But at the same time, the growth in offshore wind can be traced back to a 2014 decision to establish a new support mechanism for low-carbon generation. Called “contracts for difference”, it guarantees a set price for units of electricity. If the market price falls below the set price, the generator receives a top-up payment. If the market price rises above the set price, the generator pays back the difference.
It essentially stabilises the market and provides certainty for power generators, making it worth their while to invest for the long term. As a result of this and similar policies, the cost of offshore wind in Europe has fallen by 60% over the past decade, to become a cheap source of electricity.
When energy prices went through the roof following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, not only did wind provide a cheaper alternative to gas, windfarms and other renewables projects actually refunded a further £660m to consumers through their bills, as they paid back the difference when the market price rose above the set price they had been guaranteed. The energy crisis would have been worse without wind power.
Offshore wind is a rare manufacturing success story, too. The turbine blades can now be made in the UK, at the Siemens Gamesa facility in Hull, with the Humber estuary enjoying a renaissance as a low-carbon jobs and skills hub. This is levelling up in action. Overall, the shift to renewable electricity has been so successful that it enjoys almost unanimous support from business. A decade ago, Energy UK, the trade association representing big energy companies, was a barrier to climate progress because its members made money from burning fossil fuels. Now, Energy UK urges faster, more ambitious policy for net zero. It’s quite the change. Renewables are remarkably popular, too, with polls consistently showing strong levels of public support.
The success of renewables in the UK points to a winning formula for climate strategy: set out an ambitious plan; align economic policy with climate goals; design incentives that encourage investment through creating certainty; and listen to public opinion. And so it is all the more surprising that subsequent Conservative administrations have not learned from this success.
There were some encouraging noises from Boris Johnson, an unlikely champion of net-zero technologies. But then Tory politicians began to listen to siren voices from a small but powerful anti-net-zero lobby, funded by dark money from fossil-fuel companies, pushing the line that climate policies would be expensive and unpopular. When energy bills rocketed, Rishi Sunak could have pointed out that Conservative policies had made homegrown renewables the cheapest form of power. Instead, he made a spurious argument that more investment in fossil fuels was the way to bring bills down, trashing his party’s own legacy in the process.
The climate culture wars have left people and businesses confused, and this matters. It matters for business, because it erodes the certainty that they need to invest – the certainty that propelled offshore wind. It matters for people, too. Our research at the Lancaster University Climate Citizens project presents a remarkably consistent picture, backed up by polling evidence too. People are worried about the climate crisis and want to see leadership from government. At the same time, they don’t trust the government to provide that leadership, so they turn to cynicism or, even worse, fatalism. They just don’t think that politicians have what it takes to turn this around. They haven’t heard of successes that would contradict this narrative, such as the case of offshore wind.
The way forward for the government is clear. It must say it understands and shares people’s concerns; put forward bold policies that tell people it means business and provide that certainty investors need; involve people in decisions that affect them (for example, the next generation of renewables could be part-owned by the communities that host them); and prioritise those policies that improve people’s lives and reduce costs.
There are whispers of this approach in Keir Starmer’s offering, with GB Energy, Labour’s publicly owned energy company, and its promises to bring energy bills down through better home insulation. Meanwhile, Labour-led cities such as Manchester and London have shown that you can improve people’s lives while bringing down emissions, through prioritising public transport and cycling – and voters have rewarded them. It does not yet add up to a bold strategy. As party leaders from both left and right tour seaside constituencies, let’s hope the sight of giant blades turning in the sea breeze reminds them of what is possible if you think big on the climate crisis.
Rebecca Willis is professor of energy and climate governance at Lancaster University
