Spring Budget: The industry responds to the Chancellor’s budget
Posted by: electime 15th March 2023
Jo-Jo Hubbard, CEO of Electron said:
“This budget seems to be overweight and over reliant on nuclear power for when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. This single technology focus seems not to recognise that a) there are already three times as many MWs waiting to be connected to the grid than we need for secure Net Zero power supply; b) battery storage and flexibility, coupled with excess renewables, also solves the same issue, and c) new nuclear will take over ten years to come online. What we really need, in short order, is to connect new clean energy assets to the grid faster (taking a good look at the connections queue in the process) and to use existing grid and generation infrastructure more efficiently through local flexibility markets. We are concerned that this is not the fastest route to customers accessing lower cost lower carbon power. Especially as the sticking plaster that is the energy price guarantee is about to wash off.”
Mike Hodgson, Strategy Development Manager at James Fisher Renewables, said:
“We welcome the Chancellor’s £20bn of funding for carbon capture announced today, but we’d urge the government to think bigger to drive the industry forward. Investment is only one piece of the puzzle to reach net zero while ensuring energy security. The UK is making good pace towards its 2050 target, but in order to get there the industry also needs a competent energy workforce, built through skills and on-the-job experience, as well as an overhaul of consenting and applications processes.”
James Larnder, managing director, Aquaterra Energy said:
‘The significant funding of £20bn for UK carbon capture and storage is a landmark for the industry. Alongside our ambitious targets, it should be the catalyst for the country realising its potential as a global CCS leader.
‘With the policy, funding and ambition established, the onus falls onto operators to seize the opportunity. The UK’s existing skillset from North Sea oil and gas provides a key advantage and much of the essential technology and expertise is already in place. Operators who can adapt these existing practices for CCS will have a significant head start in this vital industry for the UK’s net zero ambitions.’
Beatrice Barleon, Head of Policy & Public Affairs at EngineeringUK, comments:
“We welcome the Government’s ongoing commitment to make the UK a science and technology superpower and the ambitions of growing the economy, meeting our Net Zero targets, and unlocking the potential of every region. We also welcome the acknowledgement that to achieve this, businesses, including engineering and technology businesses, urgently need a larger skills and workforce base, now and in the future.”
“However, the measures on childcare as well as the focus on those over 50 will not, on their own, solve the wider skills and workforce shortages in the engineering and technology sector in the long-term. We urgently need greater investment in and focus on STEM education, STEM teachers, careers provision and vocational pathways for young people.”
“Our Fit for the Future Inquiry into engineering and technology apprenticeships will be reporting later this year and we hope to work closely with the Treasury to explore how they can support growth across the engineering profession.”
