SSE chief executive Alistair Philips-Davis has written to incoming prime minister Boris Johnson with three priorities for a new government in the power sector if it wants to put the UK on track to be a net-zero country.
Top of the SSE list in teh open letter was the ability to make more investment in wind. Offshore, Philips-Davis said, “SSE believes that the Government will need to raise its ambition for these CfD auctions to deliver more than the current target of 30GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. At least 40GW of offshore by 2030 should be the aim.” He also wanted a route to market for both new and repowered onshore wind.
Second, Philips-Davis called for “a commitment to a strong UK carbon price post 2021,” which he said would be “an important signal of intent from the Government at a time when we are looking tocement our position as a world leader in the fight against climate change.” He asked for Johnson to make a commitment on the UK’s involvement with the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme saying that would be factor in setting the carbon price.
Philips-Davis also warned that networks were “crucial” in delivering an innovative and low carbon industry and warned: “a disruptive and costly nationalisation of the electricity networks would cause a multi year hiatus inour e orts to decarbonise and represent the greatest risk to the UK achieving Net Zero.”
Further reading
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