Across the western world we have become overly reliant on imported energy, all too often from regimes – like Russia – who pose an existential threat to peace and democracy here and abroad. The weaponisation of energy by the likes of Putin only has one answer – energy independence for the United Kingdom.
I’ve led on negotiations with EDF over the £20bn+ Sizewell C plans and on our push back against vast new pylon runs. The scale of the challenge ahead of us and local communities is vast. To meet Government targets, we must go from 14GW of offshore wind to 50GW in the next seven years and – in terms of total national generation – from 108GW to 300GW by 2050. All this energy not only needs to be generated but it needs to be transmitted, often through rural and sensitive landscapes. In this context, the UK needs to build as many new grid connections in the next 7 years as it has in the last 30. The net result is that we sit on the precipice of a level of construction of infrastructure not seen in this country for generations.
We all want to see lower energy bills and we all want to cut off the purse strings to despotic regimes – home grown energy is the way to do this but in our haste to get there we must protect communities, businesses, agriculture and unique landscapes. My recent article on Conservative Home sets out more on this.
I have 5 years of experience dealing with large energy projects and have spoken on the national stage on energy issues. I led on the response to Sizewell C, a myriad of off-shore wind farms, our calls for an off-shore alternative to the vast new Norwich to Tilbury pylon run (formerly known as East Anglia Green) and our opposition to the huge new Sunnica Solar Farm on the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire border. The scale of these projects is not unique to East Anglia, with coastal communities across Great Britain impacted. I’v experience not only minimising the impacts of these schemes but also maximising local benefits and investment.
So what do I want to see going forward?
We need to push forward with Great British Nuclear, seizing the opportunities of Small Modular Reactors. We must prioritise brownfield sites and protect agricultural land from vast solar schemes like the proposed Sunnica scheme in East Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk, which would span over 2,000 acres. There is a role for solar on rooftops and along infrastructure corridors but not on prime agricultural land which is vital for food production.
We need a fair deal for communities; if there is no alternative to a scheme proceeding, those living near large energy projects should receive a discount on their energy bills, and those in energy poverty should benefit from new connections and property improvements. Importantly, parish councils need to be properly funded to respond to these schemes and not be dominated by developers.
We must compel developers to work together, not deliver schemes in a piecemeal way, and transmit as much energy as possible offshore rather than across our landscape. In this respect, I have led the charge for an offshore transmission grid which would render projects like the Norwich to Tilbury Pylons unnecessary.
Finally, we need to embrace hydrogen and the opportunities this brings to freight, industry and shipping.
