Govenment publishes Energy White Paper

The Government has today published its much talked about Net Zero Energy Plan in a White paper entitled Powering Our Net Zero Future.

The white paper, which is a  policy documents produced by the Government that set out its proposals for future legislation, covers all the announcements made in the last few weeks by the Prime Minister and the Ministers at BEIS.

• target to generate 40GW of offshore wind by 2030, including 1GW floating wind, alongside the expansion of other low-cost renewables technologies
• supporting the deployment of Carbon Capture & Storage in four industrial clusters including at least one power project, to be operational by 2030 and putting in place the commercial frameworks required to help stimulate the market to deliver a future pipeline of Carbon Capture projects
• establishing a new UK Emissions Trading System, aligned to our net zero target, giving industry the certainty they need to invest in low-carbon technologies
• aiming to bring at least one large-scale nuclear project to the point of Final Investment Decision by the end of this Parliament, subject to clear value for money and all relevant approvals
• consulting on whether it is appropriate to end gas grid connections to new homes being built from 2025, in favour of clean energy alternatives
• growing the installation of electric heat pumps, from 30,000 per year to 600,000 per year by 2028
• building world-leading digital infrastructure for our energy system based on the vision set out by the independent Energy Data Taskforce, publishing the UK’s first Energy Data Strategy in spring 2021, in partnership with Ofgem
• increasing the ambition in our Industrial Clusters Mission four-fold, aiming to deliver four low-carbon clusters by 2030 and at least one fully net zero cluster by 2040
• investing £1 billion up to 2025 to facilitate the deployment of CCUS in 2 industrial clusters by the mid-2020s, and a further 2 clusters by 2030, supporting our ambition to capture 10MtCO2 per year by the end of the decade
• working with industry, aiming to develop 5GW of low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030
• creating the framework to introduce opt-in switching, consulting by March 2021 on how it should be designed, tested and incrementally scaled up
• considering how the current auto-renewal and roll-over tariff arrangements could be reformed to facilitate greater competition, consulting by March 2021 on how opt-out switching could be tested as part of any future reforms
• assessing what market framework changes may be required to facilitate the development and uptake of innovative tariffs and products that work for consumers and contribute to net zero, engaging with industry and consumer groups throughout 2021 before a formal consultation
• ensuring the retail market regulatory framework adequately covers the wider market, consulting by spring 2021 on regulating third parties such as energy brokers and price comparison websites
• establishing the Future Homes Standard which will ensure that all new-build homes are zero carbon ready
• consulting on regulatory measures to improve the energy performance of homes, and are consulting how on how mortgage lenders could support homeowners in making these improvements
• requiring that all rented non-domestic buildings will be Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band B by 2030, barring lawful exceptions
• extending the Energy Company Obligation to 2026 and expanding the Warm Home Discount to £475 million per year from 2022 to 2025/2026

The Full White paper is available to download from the government website

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-white-paper-powering-our-net-zero-future