British energy security strategy

Secure, clean and affordable British energy for the long term.

Foreword from the Prime Minister

For most of the industrial age, the UK was what we now call ‘energy independent’.

The great coal fields of the North, the Midlands and South Wales heated our homes, fed the voracious boilers of Megawatt Valley and created vast volumes of town gas for municipalities across the country.

In time they were joined by a steady flow of oil and natural gas extracted from deep below the waters of the North Sea.

Yet as the years passed we drifted into dependence on foreign sources.

Sometimes this was through deliberate planning; more often it was the byproduct of policy fudges, decision-dodging and short-term thinking.

But whatever the cause, the result today is all too obvious to anyone who receives an energy bill.

Global energy costs have been rising for some time as demand soars and factories roar back into life afterCOVID-19; Putin’s invasion of Ukraine pushed them still higher and, ultimately, it is the consumer who ends up paying the price.

This government is already stepping in to help, with over £9 billion of help for families struggling with their bills.

But if we’re going to get prices down and keep them there for the long term, we need a flow of energy that is affordable, clean and above all secure. We need a power supply that’s made in Britain, for Britain – and that’s what this plan is all about.

We’re not going to try and turn back the clock to the days when we choked our streets and our atmosphere with filthy fumes and ever-rising levels of climate-imperilling carbon dioxide.

Instead, we’re going to take advantage of Britain’s inexhaustible resources of wind and – yes – sunshine.

We’re going to produce vastly more hydrogen, which is easy to store, ready to go whenever we need it, and is a low carbon superfuel of the future.

We’re embracing the safe, clean, affordable new generation of nuclear reactors, taking the UK back to pre-eminence in a field where we once led the world.

We’re making homes and businesses more efficient so you need to use less energy in the first place.

We’re going to work with industry to slash our way through needless and repetitive red tape so that all this can happen much more quickly. Energy companies tell me they can get an offshore wind turbine upright and generating in less than 24 hours but that it can take as much as 10 years to secure the licences and permissions required to do so.

And as even the most evangelistic environmentalist would concede that we can’t simply pull the plug on all fossil fuels overnight without the lights going out all over Europe, we’re going to make better use of the oil and gas in our own backyard by giving the energy fields of the North Sea a new lease of life.

For years, governments have dodged the big decisions on energy, but not this one.

We’ve got the ambition, we’ve got the vision – and, with this plan, we’re going to bring clean, affordable, secure power to the people for generations to come.

TheRt HonBoris JohnsonMP
Prime Minister

Introduction

Energy is the lifeblood of the global economy. From heating our homes to powering our factories, everything we do depends on a reliable flow of affordable energy.

So as the global economy reopened in the aftermath of the pandemic, the sudden surge in demand for everything from new cars to foreign holidays drove a massive spike in demand for oil and gas, dramatically increasing the price of these essential fuels.

This has been compounded by Russia’s abhorrent and illegal invasion of Ukraine. As we are part of a global market, the price we pay for gas is set internationally. And President Putin has used this against us by restricting the supply of Russian gas to the European market, further pushing up prices. The vital sanctions imposed by the UK and its allies to support the Ukrainian people will also inevitably have an adverse effect on all economies.

As a result of all these factors, European gas prices soared by more than 200% last year and coal prices increased by more than 100%. This record rise in global energy prices has led to an unavoidable increase in the cost of living in the UK, as we use gas both to generate electricity, and to heat the majority of our 28 million homes.

The government’s immediate priority has been to provide financial assistance to families and businesses struggling with higher energy bills. But when the UK is spending the equivalent of over £1,200 per person this year, just to service the national debt, we cannot afford merely to rely on taxpayer funding to assist with paying ever higher bills; we need to bring down the bills themselves.

The first step is to improve energy efficiency, reducing the amount of energy that households and businesses need. We have already saved households on the lowest incomes around £300 a year on bills through energy efficiency measures – and we are investing over £6 billion on decarbonising the nation’s homes and buildings. But the long-term solution is to address our underlying vulnerability to international oil and gas prices by reducing our dependence on imported oil and gas.

Even as we reduce imports, we will continue to need gas to heat our homes and oil to fill up our tanks for many years to come – so the cleanest and most secure way to do this is to source more of it domestically with a second lease of life for our North Sea. Net zero is a smooth transition, not an immediate extinction, for oil and gas.

Accelerating the transition away from oil and gas then depends critically on how quickly we can roll out new renewables. The government’s ‘Ten point plan for a green industrial revolution’, together with the ‘Net zero strategy’ and this Energy Strategy, is driving an unprecedented £100 billion of private sector investment by 2030 into new British industries including offshore wind and supporting around 480,000 clean jobs by the end of the decade.

The growing proportion of our electricity coming from renewables reduces our exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets. Indeed, without the renewables we are putting on the grid today, and the green levies that support them, energy bills would be higher than they are now. But now we need to be bolder in removing the red tape that holds back new clean energy developments and exploit the potential of all renewable technologies.

Most critically, when we have seen how quickly dependence on foreign energy can hurt British families and businesses, we need to build a British energy system that is much more self-sufficient. This requires power that can be relied on even when the sun is not shining, or the wind is not blowing. So this government will reverse decades of myopia, and make the big call to lead again in a technology the UK was the first to pioneer, by investing massively in nuclear power.

Investing in the North Sea, expanding our renewable capacity, and leading in nuclear power will also enable the UK to produce more hydrogen. We will seize this opportunity so that we are not wholly dependent on other countries for this vital superfuel which has vast potential applications - from industrial production to net zero aviation.

All of these steps will accelerate our progress towards net zero, which is fundamental to energy security. By 2030, 95% of British electricity could be low-carbon; and by 2035, we will have decarbonised our electricity system, subject to security of supply. This is a transition which reduces our dependence on imported oil and gas and delivers a radical long-term shift in our energy with cleaner, cheaper power, lower energy bills and thousands of high wage, high skilled new jobs.

We are delivering on the 10 point plan, having already generated 68,000 green jobs and £22 billion in private investment, so now we are raising our ambition.

Immediate support on energy bills

The government has acted quickly to provide immediate relief to British families and businesses facing steep increases in their energy bills.

A £9.1 billion package of support including a £150 non-repayable Council Tax rebate for the majority of households in England from April, with comparable provision in the devolved administrations, and a £200 reduction in energy bills from October for all households in Great Britain through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, to be recovered through energy bills and will spread the cost of the energy price shock over 5 years from 2023.

The Warm Home Discount will increase to £150 in October and extend its coverage to assist 3 million people.

The government is investing a further £500 million in a Household Support Fund for local authorities to use in supporting the most vulnerable with food and utility bills.

Totalling £22 billion worth of support for cost of living, further measures include:

The government recognises that UK industrial electricity prices are higher than those of other countriesand will act to address this. We will extend theEIICompensation Scheme for a further 3 years, and intend to increase the aid intensity to up to 100% (1.5% ofGVA). We have increased the overall budget limit for the scheme accordingly, but as is the case under the current scheme, if there is a risk of budget over-spend, we may choose to reduce the aid intensity.

We will also consider other measures to support business including increasing the renewable obligation exemption to 100%.

Energy efficiency

Over 90% of our homes are heated by fossil fuels, accounting for a third of UK total gas use. The price spikes in the gas market mean households are particularly exposed to these changes and facing energy bills upwards of £2,000. The majority of our homes are energy inefficient. Improving the efficiency of our homes could reduce our heating bills by around 20% and reduce our dependency on foreign gas. By 2025, around 700,000 homes will be upgraded, and by 2050 all our buildings will be energy efficient with low carbon heating.

At the end of World War 1, Britain was a nation in which almost 80% of people rented their homes. Fast-forward to now, and around 70% of people own their own home, with most built prior to the 1973 oil shock which precipitated an improvement in insulation standards.

Our homes are our castles – people want choices regarding how they improve them. But internationally, some countries are faring better than the UK as their homes are less dependent on gas and better insulated.

We want to continue making UK homes more comfortable and cheaper to run. Every therm of gas saved grows our energy security and brings jobs to the UK.

On cost, there are many measures for reducing energy bills including cavity wall insulation, which typically costs between £1,000 and £3,000. Measures that improve the efficiency of our homes, on average, reduce bills by £300.

On aesthetics, upgrades can retain and enhance building’s character with measures being easy to install and beautiful in design.

On choice, this is not being imposed on people and is a gradual transition following the grain of behaviour. The British people are no-nonsense pragmatists who can make decisions based on the information.

We have gone further than any government in setting out an ambitious strategy:

We will cut the cost for consumers who want to make improvements by:

We will help to send clear signals:

Through the market:

We are looking to facilitate low-cost finance from retail lenders to drive investment in energy efficiency measures. There are currently around 40 green mortgage products available to consumers wanting to make green home improvements. We will double innovation funding for the development and piloting of new green finance products for consumers from £10 million to £20 million and introduce a scheme under which lenders will work to improve the energy performance of the properties against which they lend. We will also work with the UK Infrastructure Bank as it considers investment opportunities including those that would improve the energy efficiency of our buildings.

Better labelling and product standards so consumers can purchase more efficient products including for heating, lighting, washing and cooking. For example, LED lightbulbs are now the norm and Energy Saving Trust estimate that consumers save £2 to £3 per lightbulb each year, with little effort. We are bringing in new minimum standards and labelling requirements for a range of energy-using products and will formally consult on draft regulations at the end of 2022, early 2023.

Expanding heat pump manufacturing. We will run a Heat Pump Investment Accelerator Competition in 2022 worth up to £30 million to make British heat pumps, which reduce demand for gas.

Through government channels:

Research suggests the government is the trusted source of advice so we will work with trusted voices to scale up our information offer to help households understand energy saving measures. By summer we will launch a comprehensive energy advice service on GOV.UK which will help consumers navigate what can be unknown territory to improve the energy performance of their homes. We will launch additional support for homeowners through telephone support and specific local area advice for energy consumers.

Establishing a dedicated energy advice offering for smaller businesses to provide trusted advice on improving efficiency and decarbonization.

Through frameworks:

Setting clear energy performance standards varying by building type, phased in over the long-term. More details will be announced in May.

Reviewing the practical planning barriers that households can face when installing energy efficiency measures such as improved glazing, including in conservation areas and listed buildings. This will be completed by the end of 2022 and ensure protection of local amenity and heritage, whilst making it easier to improve energy efficiency.

Oil and gas

Currently around half of our demand for gas is met through domestic supplies. In meeting net zero by 2050 we may still use a quarter of the gas that we use now. So to reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels, we must fully utilise our great North Sea reserve, use the empty caverns for CO₂storage, bring through hydrogen to use as an alternative to natural gas and use our offshore expertise to support our offshore wind sector. As a result of our plans, the North Sea will still be a foundation of our energy security but we will have reduced our gas consumption by over 40% by 2030.

The North Sea emerged as an important oil-producing area in the 1970s and 1980s, with the UK continental shelf currently home to around 290 offshore installations, over 10,000kmof pipelines, 15 onshore terminals and over 2,500 wells.

Gas is currently the glue that holds our electricity system together and it will be an important transition fuel. We are taking a balanced approach to this unique subterranean asset. There is no contradiction between our commitment to net zero and our commitment to a strong and evolving North Sea industry. Indeed, one depends on the other.

On decarbonisation, the flexibility of gas has underpinned our world-leading rollout of offshore wind and UK gas has a lower carbon footprint well under half that of most imported gas.

On longevity, estimates suggest 7.9 billion barrels of oil reserves and resources remain under our seas, and 560 billion cubic metres of gas.

On profits, the industry is set to invest billions in the development of nascent clean technologies such as hydrogen and carbon capture.

We will send clear signals on the role of gas in the transition:

We will ensure a new lease of life for the North Sea in low-carbon technologies:

Renewables

Accelerating the transition from fossil fuels depends critically on how quickly we can roll out new renewables. Our ‘Ten point plan for a green industrial revolution’ has already put the UK at the forefront of many renewable technologies, delivering £40 billion of private investment in under 2 years. By the end of 2023 we are set to increase our capacity by a further 15%. But now we must go further and faster, building on our global leadership in offshore wind.

Our island’s resources, with its shallow seabeds and high winds offers us unique advantages that have made us global leaders in offshore wind and pioneers of floating wind. With smarter planning we can maintain high environmental standards while increasing the pace of deployment by 25%. Our ambition is to deliver up to 50GW by 2030, including up to 5GW of innovative floating wind.

Our history of North Sea oil and gas expertise enables us rapidly to deploy our rich expertise in sub-sea technology and maximise our natural assets. Already, just off the coast of Aberdeenshire, we have built the world’s first floating offshore wind farms. There will be huge benefits in the Irish and Celtic Sea. And by 2030 we will have more than enough wind capacity to power every home in Britain.

We will be the Saudi Arabia of wind power, with the ambition that by 2030 over half our renewable generation capacity will be wind, with the added benefit of high skilled jobs abounding these shores. But the development and deployment of offshore wind farms still takes up to 13 years.

On planning, these projects tend to have public support, and ultimately benefit the environment because they help reduce the damage to habitats that is caused by climate change.

On cost, the unit cost of offshore wind power has fallen by around two-thirds. The Contracts for Difference scheme has shared the risks of investing in new technologies to boost UK renewables and bring in billions of pounds of private investment.

On jobs, our technological leadership is delivering high skilled, high wage British jobs. Our increased ambition means we expect the sector will grow to support around 90,000 jobs by 2030.

We will cut the process time by over half by:

We will ensure the UK remains a world leader by:

Onshore wind is one of the cheapest forms of renewable power. The UK already has over 14GW of onshore wind, with a strong pipeline of future projects in Scotland. We will improve national network infrastructure and, in England, support a number of new projects with strong local backing.

The government is serious about delivering cheaper, cleaner, more secure power, so we need to consider all options. That is why we included onshore wind in the latest Contracts for Difference auction round and will include it in future rounds.

In Scotland, which has its own planning system, we will work with the Scottish Government to ensure communities and landscape issues are considered for future projects.

In Wales, we will support the work underway by the Welsh Government,Ofgem, and networks to improve grid connections.

In the more densely populated England, the government recognises the range of views on onshore wind. Our plans will prioritise putting local communities in control. We will not introduce wholesale changes to current planning regulations for onshore wind but will consult this year on developing local partnerships for a limited number of supportive communities who wish to host new onshore wind infrastructure in return for benefits, including lower energy bills. The consultation will consider how clear support can be demonstrated by local communities, local authorities and MPs.

We will also look at arrangements to support the repowering of existing onshore wind sites when they require updating or replacement. With advances in technology this process can enhance capacity and provide new opportunities for communities to benefit.

With the sun providing enough daily energy to power the world 10,000 times over, solar power is a globally abundant resource. There is currently 14GW of solar capacity in the UK split between large scale projects to smaller scale rooftop solar. The cost of solar has fallen by around 85% over the past decade, and can be installed in just one day on a domestic roof. We expect a five-fold increase in deployment by 2035.

For ground-mounted solar, we will consult on amending planning rules to strengthen policy in favour of development on non-protected land, while ensuring communities continue to have a say and environmental protections remain in place.

We will continue supporting the effective use of land by encouraging large scale projects to locate on previously developed, or lower value land, where possible, and ensure projects are designed to avoid, mitigate, and where necessary, compensate for the impacts of using greenfield sites.

We will also support solar that is co-located with other functions (for example, agriculture, onshore wind generation, or storage) to maximise the efficiency of land use. We have also included solar in the latest Contracts for Difference auction round and will include it in future rounds.

For rooftop solar, we will bring down bills and increase jobs by radically simplifying planning processes with a consultation on relevant permitted development rights and will consider the best way to make use of public sector rooftops.

We have already removedVATon solar panels installed in residential accommodation in Great Britain. We are looking at facilitating low-cost finance from retail lenders to drive rooftop deployment and energy efficiency measures. And we will design performance standards to make installation of renewables, including solarPV, the presumption in new homes and buildings.

As an island nation surrounded by water, we will also aggressively explore renewable opportunities afforded by our geography and geology, including tidal and geothermal. And we are actively exploring the potential for international projects to provide clean, affordable and secure power, for example by expanding the Contracts for Difference scheme.

Nuclear

Low-carbon nuclear supplies 15% of our electric lifeblood as a steady source of generation to complement intermittent renewables. Nuclear is the only form of reliable, low carbon electricity generation which has been proven at scale and returns more than 100 times as much power as a solar site of the same size. We can only secure a big enough baseload of reliable power for our island by drawing on nuclear. Our aim is to lead the world once again in a technology we pioneered so that by 2050, up to a quarter of our power consumed in Great Britain is from nuclear.

When Her Majesty The Queen opened the world’s first nuclear power station at Calder Hall in Cumbria in 1956, she described being present at the making of history. The UK had indeed led the world as the first country to split the atom, and the first to pioneer this new form of power.

But since then we have fallen behind other countries. 5 of our 6 existing plants will be offline within the decade, and we currently have only o1 new project in construction. By comparison, France currently has 9 times more nuclear capacity than the UK. For decades successive governments have failed to make the necessary investments in British nuclear.

Today the UK is making the big call to reverse decades of underinvestment. We will kickstart a nuclear reaction to recover our global leadership in civil nuclear power and drive down costs by building at scale over the next 30 years.

On safety grounds, the UK applies the highest global nuclear safety standards, including for the safe long-term disposal of all nuclear waste.

On cost, the UK is making the responsible decision to invest in this country’s future and ultimately lower costs through setting up a long-term nuclear programme.

On jobs, each large-scale nuclear power plant could support up to around 10,000 jobs at peak construction.

We will ensure the UK is one of the best places in the world to invest in nuclear:

We will radically change how we deliver new nuclear projects:

Hydrogen

We have virtually no low-carbon hydrogen in our system today – but technology is making this a near-term reality with vast potential applications. By investing in the North Sea, renewables and nuclear through this plan, the UK is well-placed to exploit all forms of low carbon hydrogen production. Our drive on renewables makes green hydrogen especially valuable for flexibility and as a storage solution. Excess renewable electricity used to produce hydrogen can be stored over time and used to power the grid when needed. We will double our UK ambition for hydrogen production to up to 10GW by 2030, with at least half of this from electrolytic hydrogen.

Hydrogen has many uses, for example, the first car to use a hydrogen fuel cell was invented by General Motors in 1966. It was a key component in town gas that powered UK homes before the discovery of North Sea gas. When produced cleanly, hydrogen is one of the greenest forms of energy we have – which is why we plan to blend up to 20% hydrogen into the natural gas grid and will take a final decision by the end of next year.

Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element in the universe, but needs releasing from water, hydrocarbons, or other organic matter before we can use it. The UK will look to be a leader in developing a domestic source of this super-fuel, in this ever-increasing internationally competitive space. And we fully support hydrogen as a relatively frictionless way to decarbonise our lives in the near-term.

Hydrogen can be produced in many different ways. Sometimes colours are used to describe this process.

‘Blue’ hydrogen splits natural gas into hydrogen and carbon dioxide, with the carbon captured and stored.

‘Green’ hydrogen uses electrolysis, passing electricity through water to separate out the hydrogen and oxygen.

‘Pink’ hydrogen also uses electrolysis, but with energy from a nuclear power plant.

We will offer clear long-term signals alongside immediate support:

Networks, storage and flexibility

 Accelerating our domestic supply of clean and affordable electricity also requires accelerating the connecting network infrastructure to support it. Within this decade, our modern system will prioritise 2 key features: anticipating need because planning ahead minimises cost and public disruption; and hyper-flexibility in matching supply and demand so that minimal energy is wasted. This more efficient, locally-responsive system could bring down costs by up to £10 billion a year by 2050.

Flexibility has always been the valuable heart of our system, ensuring power can flow quickly from where it’s produced to where it’s needed. In 2021, the onshore electricity network had approximately 18,000kmof high voltage transmission cables, and approximately 800,000kmof lower voltage distribution lines, enough to stretch around the world 20 times.Networks are a complex system that have been slow in their transformation. We aim to halve the time it takes to get this infrastructure built so we can double the pace.

On costs, building ahead of need, where good value for money, may mean paying more in the short term for an asset that isn’t efficiently utilised immediately but is the cheapest option over the long term and reduces the need for repeated disruptive works to continually upgrade the system.

On uncertainty, whilst there are many future decisions yet to be taken, and a need for an agile approach to network infrastructure, we do know that electricity demand is highly likely to double by 2050.

On competition, price signals can harness the power of responsive demand to minimise wasted energy and deliver far more efficient distribution of power than a state-planned system ever could.

We will ensure lower total costs by offering clear signals on future need:

We will ensure a more flexible, efficient system for both generators and users:

International delivery

It is crucial we work with international partners to maintain stable energy markets and prices. This will help protect UK consumers and reduce the use of fossil fuels globally. Similar to our domestic strategy, we have a dual approach to reduce global reliance on Russian fossil fuels whilst pivoting towards clean, affordable energy.

To reduce global reliance on Russian fossil fuels, the UK is:

To support other countries to make the same transition to clean, affordable, secure energy, the UK is:

Energy plan objectives and key measures

Low carbon UK gas, and zero Russian imports.

Deliver Great British nuclear with high ambition, expertise and backed to support projects.

Ramp up deployment, on both roofs and ground.

Cheaper power for local areas by cutting planning and delivering better connections.

Boost our commitment to green H₂, accelerating our H₂economy.

Accelerate energy efficiency deployment and phase out fossil fuel use.