Ben Golding, Director of the Clean Power 2030 Unit, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), opened the Clean Power 2030 Summit this morning with a progress update.
Nearly two years into the Clean Power 2030 mission, “we’ve done the easy part,” Golding said. “We’re now getting into the hardest part.”
The three core goals of the Clean Power Mission – the main 95% clean energy system, that 100% of consumption should be covered by clean energy and that CO2 emissions will be 50 g/kWh, instead of 100 g/kWh – are, according to Golding, at the “outer limit of possibility.”
As a report published yesterday by LCP Delta concluded, Britain will indeed miss its CP2030 targets. Golding seemed to offer a justification.
“When you set a goal you think you’re probably going to miss it, but the point is to stimulate the system,” he said.
“The clean energy mission is part of something bigger: it is fundamental to achieving net zero by 2050.”
“The idea behind all this is to make the system work faster than before.”
Britain is a world leader in decarbonising energy supplies, Golding said, and the Clean Power 2030 target is about “accelerating the journey we are on”.
Golding outlined achievements to date, including record share of renewable energy generation by 2024, with clean energy now supplying more than 50% of Britain’s electricity.
Unsurprisingly, grid connection reform was also cited as a major hurdle to overcome, in a process that Golding said was “not the smoothest, but fundamentally necessary”.
Moving into the second phase of the plan, Golding emphasized that the clean energy efforts are not just driven by DESNZ; it is a whole-of-government mission.
The four points of attention for the remaining years until 2030 are:
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Execution: continued focus on low-carbon generation and building the networks to support this.
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Demand for electricity: encouraging the use of PV on roofs, heat pumps and electric vehicles for consumers and companies.
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Operation: How to operate the system most efficiently, with an emphasis on increasing consumer-led flexibility.
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Acceleration: Continue to accelerate the deployment of large-scale generation technologies.
“We’ve seen record investment and record activity. What we need to do now is think about what we can do to go even further and faster and achieve this government mission,” Golding concluded.
