Latest news with #GreatBritishEnergy
Daily Record
24-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Record
The UK Government is working relentlessly to bring down energy bills for Scots households
Energy bills are too high. Families and businesses across Scotland have struggled to keep up with costs that have soared in recent years – squeezing household budgets and leaving millions worried about how they will get by. That is why I know the news that the energy price cap is falling in July will be welcomed by Daily Record readers, and families up and down the country. It will mean working people can keep more of their money in the coming months. But this is a long way from job done. The Government is relentless in our pursuit of bringing down bills for good. And we know the only way to do that is to get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets controlled by dictators and petrostates. Fossil fuel shocks have caused half of Britain's recessions since 1970, and in the years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine we have seen how vulnerable we are to the impact of geopolitical events. Building clean homegrown power is the only way to take back control and protect billpayers from repeated price spikes. That is why the government is driving the most ambitious upgrade to Britain's energy infrastructure in generations through our Plan for Change. We've already consented enough wind and solar projects to power two million homes, secured more than £40 billion of investment in clean energy announced since July, lifted the onshore wind ban and set up Great British Energy with its headquarters in Aberdeen – Britain's first publicly owned energy company in more than 70 years. Every solar panel, every wind turbine and every piece of grid infrastructure we build helps get us off the fossil fuel rollercoaster so we can bring down bills once and for all. And as we take back control of our energy supply, the government is determined to do everything we can to support people struggling now. That means fighting for consumers and fixing an energy system that, for too long, frankly just hasn't worked for them. Earlier this year we launched a consultation on expanding the Warm Home Discount, which will give 220,000 more Scottish families £150 off their bills next winter, and mean that across the UK one in five families will get this vital support. Alongside it we are introducing new warm home standards for renters. I've heard heart-breaking stories from renters suffering from mould and damp. Everyone deserves a warm and safe home, which is why our plans will ensure landlords invest in the home upgrades that can bring down costs for tenants – lifting half a million private renters out of fuel poverty in the process. And we are standing up for Scottish consumers on the issues that matter to them, including acting on standing changes and forced installation of prepayment meters, and ensuring automatic compensation for wrongdoing. The reality is every family and business pays the price when energy costs rocket. That is why we will continue to take on the dogma of those who would keep us hooked on expensive, insecure fossil fuels when we can choose cheaper, clean homegrown energy instead. This government is determined to bring the country energy security once and for all. Today's expected figures are good news but we know we have so much more to do.
Press and Journal
22-05-2025
- Business
- Press and Journal
Aberdeen oil workers reveal personal fears for their jobs
Oil and gas workers in Aberdeen have opened up over their job fears and uncertainty for the future. They spoke directly to Scotland's Just Transition Commission which today warns the region is heading for an 'unjust transition' away from fossil fuels. Workers reported: They told the commission – meeting in Aberdeen today – that skilled jobs are already being lost to the Scottish economy in the move away from oil and gas to renewable industries. One worker said: 'It's happening now. We're seeing redundancies on a big scale, perhaps 2,000 over the past two to three years. The skills are going to go.' Those interviewed said the credibility of the approach is 'seriously at risk' among offshore workers. Another employee said: 'I've got probably four years left in the North Sea. Where do I go? My employer is not funding training. What do I do in four years? 'Who's going to be there for me in four years? There's a lack of information about where the work is and what are the skills required. 'Without this information you're just going to have a load of people who don't know what they're doing. 'A lot of guys are in denial. They think the North Sea will go on forever.' A prevalent view is the Scottish and UK governments lack a plan for the transition. There is a perception among some offshore workers that the timescales involved will shed UK offshore jobs while domestic consumption relies on 'dirtier' imported oil and gas. A worker said: 'We are in a critical window. Mess up the next five years and we're really in trouble. Net zero is at stake, not just jobs in the north-east.' The commission draws members from business, industry, trade unions, environmental and community groups and academia. Their report says more needs to be done to support good quality jobs in the offshore clean energy economy – including in wind and carbon capture and storage. It highlighted the need for a 'clear plan' to build the domestic supply chain and manufacturing for renewables. The report adds: 'Workers need a clear and credible offer on training, with employers taking responsibility for supporting this alongside government action.' The commission will meet Scottish Government ministers and UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks to discuss its findings in the coming weeks. Scottish Government minister Gillian Martin welcomed the report. She added: 'Workers are at the heart of Scotland's just transition to net zero.' The UK Government said it has taken 'rapid steps' to deliver the next generation of good jobs for the North Sea as part of its Plan for Change. A spokesman said: 'This comes alongside Great British Energy, which has already announced a £300 million investment in British supply chains, unlocking significant investment and helping to create thousands of skilled jobs, progressing our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The West's next mass blackouts might be ‘made in China'
'Cheap, clean power, to give us energy security,' declared Ed Miliband, as he strode through a grassy field flanked by rows of solar panels. With a film crew in tow, the Energy Secretary visited Castle Hill solar farm, in East Yorkshire, last Thursday to promote the launch of Great British Energy, the new publicly owned energy company. If he gets his way, there will soon be many more sites like it. Under Labour's clean power mission, the Government wants to almost triple the amount of British solar capacity by 2030. Yet while ministers say this will ensure we 'take back control of our energy system', there are fears that sourcing large amounts of kit from China will achieve precisely the opposite. Just hours before Miliband's visit to Yorkshire, it was reported that American engineers had discovered the presence of secret components in Chinese-made power inverters used by US solar farms. Power inverters take the DC electricity generated by solar panels and change it into a AC format the grid can use. The parts, which were not included in any schematics, included communication devices such as cellular radios that would bypass other protections and allow the inverters to be remotely disabled. In other words, it represents a potential 'kill switch'. If replicated elsewhere, experts warned it could pose a serious threat to grid security. Shutting off even three to four gigawatts (GW) of capacity at once can trigger a cascading wave of power cuts in a modern electricity network. It was not clear this week which Chinese supplier or solar farm was involved. Nor was it immediately clear whether the presence of the hidden components was deliberate or a mistake. It is normal for equipment to have some internet-connected parts, usually to administer 'over the air' software updates. But the revelations have sent shockwaves through the solar industry and have triggered fresh scrutiny of Chinese suppliers and their role in Western infrastructure – particularly given China's dominance over particular critical technologies. In Britain for example, more than two fifths of imported solar panels come directly from China, according to HM Revenue & Customs. One solar panel executive said the true market share of Chinese suppliers may be even higher, given that some will be resold by companies based in Europe. Globally, Chinese companies have the solar supply chain in a near-total stranglehold. They control 79pc of manufacturing capacity for polysilicon (the crystalline material used to make wafers), 97pc of wafer manufacturing, 85pc of solar cell manufacturing and 75pc of module or panel manufacturing. Meanwhile, Chinese firms account for about two thirds of global power inverter shipments, as well as around 60pc of the market in the UK, according to Wood Mackenzie. The biggest two companies by far are Huawei and Sungrow, followed by Ginlong Solis and Sineng. British sites that appear to have used Sungrow inverters include the Strensham and Llanwern solar parks, in Worcestershire and South Wales respectively, owned by Next Energy. On Friday, a spokesman for the company did not respond to a request for comment. Similarly, the Skeeby and Bishampton solar farms in Yorkshire and Worcestershire were built by a company that struck an inverter supply deal with Huawei for its UK sites in 2015, The Telegraph has found. Spokespeople for the owners did not respond to a request for comment either. There is no evidence of similar devices being found on these farms. The dominance of Chinese firms is largely down to price, particularly in the UK, where competition is intense. 'In regions like Europe, where you have competition between Chinese manufacturers and more traditional Western manufacturers, a Chinese utility-scale inverter is often half the cost of a similar Western one,' says Joe Shangraw, a solar analyst at Wood Mackenzie. European firms claim their Chinese rivals are selling their equipment for less than the cost of production, a 'dumping' strategy aimed at destroying the competition. But the current state of play also reflects Beijing's years-long quest to dominate key technologies under the Made in China 2025 industrial strategy, which has handed companies in favoured sectors massive state support. Now, top suppliers such as Huawei are not just cheap – they are also the most technologically sophisticated, says Shangraw. Still, critics have long warned that allowing China to gain so much control over solar supply chains risks, at the very least, putting Western countries in an uncomfortable position. Miliband, for example, admitted in March that many of the solar panels deployed in Britain would inevitably be sourced in China – triggering concerns that the Government's net zero push risked unintentionally supporting suppliers infamous for using forced labour in the Xinjiang region, where Beijing has instituted a brutal crackdown on Uyghur Muslims. There is no suggestion that Huawei or Sungrow is linked to this scandal. Others warned that giving Beijing so much leverage over Western supply chains would allow it to apply huge diplomatic pressure during disagreements. Yet for experts and politicians, the concerns raised by the discovery of hidden components in Chinese power inverters hit much closer to home. If they are the result of foul play, it implies Beijing could inflict mass blackouts on the US and Europe during a crisis. More than 200GW of European solar capacity now depends on Chinese-made inverters, according to the European Solar Manufacturing Council. 'If you control such an amount of inverters and you turn them off in a coordinated way, you could cause blackouts across Europe in just a second,' warns Christoph Podewils, the council's secretary general. Even if you believe Chinese firms themselves present no risk, Podewils says that having so much capacity concentrated in the hands of Huawei and Sungrow – which control the majority of the European market – is a risk in itself. 'You've got a single country that basically controls the European power system, or in particular just two companies. They could be very effective targets for hackers to blackmail them, for instance, even if they do not really want to control the system.' This is one reason Podewils and European manufacturers are now lobbying for governments to impose restrictions of the kind imposed on Huawei's role in telecoms networks due to Western spying concerns. Though Huawei has always denied it poses any threat, British ministers announced a clampdown in 2020 that banned the Chinese company from having any role in 5G mobile infrastructure and limited its reach to just 35pc of fibre optic networks. The Conservatives have called for an investigation into the similar concerns about Chinese solar inverters. Andrew Bowie, a shadow energy minister, urged Miliband to pause his clean power rollout until ministers have clarity over whether UK solar farms could be a risk. The Government has insisted it will 'never let anything get in the way of our national security', adding: 'Our energy sector is subject to the highest levels of scrutiny.' But on Friday, Tory backbencher Nick Timothy accused Miliband of being 'a danger to our energy and national security'. 'This tech could allow a hostile state to knock out our grid – potentially for a long time – and immobilise infrastructure and key equipment,' he added. Solar farm owners are understood to be investigating the claims, with industry body Solar Energy UK insisting that power inverters can be replaced relatively quickly if necessary. However, ditching Chinese suppliers entirely would not come without cost, Wood Mackenzie's Shangraw says. 'There are going to be downsides to that, especially in terms of pricing,' he warns. In recent years, the order to rip out Huawei kit from telecoms networks has been blamed for inflicting billions of pounds of extra costs on mobile and internet operators – and by extension consumers. If the worst comes to pass, it means Miliband's gamble on Chinese solar may not deliver cheap power or energy security after all. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
19-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Why the West's next mass blackouts might be ‘made in China'
'Cheap, clean power, to give us energy security,' declared Ed Miliband, as he strode through a grassy field flanked by rows of solar panels. With a film crew in tow, the Energy Secretary visited Castle Hill solar farm, in East Yorkshire, last Thursday to promote the launch of Great British Energy, the new publicly owned energy company. If he gets his way, there will soon be many more sites like it. Under Labour's clean power mission, the Government wants to almost triple the amount of British solar capacity by 2030. Yet while ministers say this will ensure we 'take back control of our energy system', there are fears that sourcing large amounts of kit from China will achieve precisely the opposite. Just hours before Miliband's visit to Yorkshire, it was reported that American engineers had discovered the presence of secret components in Chinese-made power inverters used by US solar farms. Power inverters take the DC electricity generated by solar panels and change it into a AC format the grid can use. The parts, which were not included in any schematics, included communication devices such as cellular radios that would bypass other protections and allow the inverters to be remotely disabled. In other words, it represents a potential 'kill switch'. If replicated elsewhere, experts warned it could pose a serious threat to grid security. Shutting off even three to four gigawatts of capacity at once can trigger a cascading wave of power cuts in a modern electricity network. It was not clear this week which Chinese supplier or solar farm was involved. Nor was it immediately clear whether the presence of the hidden components was deliberate or a mistake. It is normal for equipment to have some internet-connected parts, usually to administer 'over the air' software updates. But the revelations have sent shockwaves through the solar industry and have triggered fresh scrutiny of Chinese suppliers and their role in Western infrastructure – particularly given China's dominance over particular critical technologies. In Britain for example, more than two fifths of imported solar panels come directly from China, according to HM Revenue & Customs. One solar panel executive said the true market share of Chinese suppliers may be even higher, given that some will be resold by companies based in Europe. Globally, Chinese companies have the solar supply chain in a near-total stranglehold. They control 79pc of manufacturing capacity for polysilicon (the crystalline material used to make wafers), 97pc of wafer manufacturing, 85pc of solar cell manufacturing and 75pc of module or panel manufacturing. Meanwhile, Chinese firms account for about two thirds of global power inverter shipments, as well as around 60pc of the market in the UK, according to Wood Mackenzie. The biggest two companies by far are Huawei and Sungrow, followed by Ginlong Solis and Sineng. British sites that appear to have used Sungrow inverters include the Strensham and Llanwern solar parks, in Worcestershire and South Wales respectively, owned by Next Energy. On Friday, a spokesman for the company did not respond to a request for comment. Similarly, the Skeeby and Bishampton solar farms in Yorkshire and Worcestershire were built by a company that struck an inverter supply deal with Huawei for its UK sites in 2015, The Telegraph has found. Spokespeople for the owners did not respond to a request for comment either. There is no evidence of similar devices being found on these farms. The dominance of Chinese firms is largely down to price, particularly in the UK, where competition is intense. 'In regions like Europe, where you have competition between Chinese manufacturers and more traditional Western manufacturers, a Chinese utility-scale inverter is often half the cost of a similar Western one,' says Joe Shangraw, a solar analyst at Wood Mackenzie. European firms claim their Chinese rivals are selling their equipment for less than the cost of production, a 'dumping' strategy aimed at destroying the competition. But the current state of play also reflects Beijing's years-long quest to dominate key technologies under the Made in China 2025 industrial strategy, which has handed companies in favoured sectors massive state support. Now, top suppliers such as Huawei are not just cheap – they are also the most technologically sophisticated, says Shangraw. Still, critics have long warned that allowing China to gain so much control over solar supply chains risks, at the very least, putting Western countries in an uncomfortable position. Miliband, for example, admitted in March that many of the solar panels deployed in Britain would inevitably be sourced in China – triggering concerns that the Government's net zero push risked unintentionally supporting suppliers infamous for using forced labour in the Xinjiang region, where Beijing has instituted a brutal crackdown on Uyghur Muslims. There is no suggestion that Huawei or Sungrow is linked to this scandal. Others warned that giving Beijing so much leverage over Western supply chains would allow it to apply huge diplomatic pressure during disagreements. Yet for experts and politicians, the concerns raised by the discovery of hidden components in Chinese power inverters hit much closer to home. If they are the result of foul play, it implies Beijing could inflict mass blackouts on the US and Europe during a crisis. More than 200 gigawatts of European solar capacity now depends on Chinese-made inverters, according to the European Solar Manufacturing Council. 'If you control such an amount of inverters and you turn them off in a coordinated way, you could cause blackouts across Europe in just a second,' warns Christoph Podewils, the council's secretary general. Even if you believe Chinese firms themselves present no risk, Podewils says that having so much capacity concentrated in the hands of Huawei and Sungrow – which control the majority of the European market – is a risk in itself. 'You've got a single country that basically controls the European power system, or in particular just two companies. They could be very effective targets for hackers to blackmail them, for instance, even if they do not really want to control the system.' This is one reason why Podewils and European manufacturers are now lobbying for governments to impose restrictions of the kind imposed on Huawei's role in telecoms networks due to Western spying concerns. Though Huawei has always denied it poses any threat, British ministers announced a clampdown in 2020 that banned the Chinese company from having any role in 5G mobile infrastructure and limited its reach to just 35pc of fibre optic networks. The Conservatives have called for an investigation into the similar concerns about Chinese solar inverters. Andrew Bowie, a shadow energy minister, urged Miliband to pause his clean power rollout until ministers have clarity over whether UK solar farms could be a risk. The Government has insisted it will 'never let anything get in the way of our national security', adding: 'Our energy sector is subject to the highest levels of scrutiny.' But on Friday, Tory backbencher Nick Timothy accused Miliband of being 'a danger to our energy and national security'. 'This tech could allow a hostile state to knock out our grid – potentially for a long time – and immobilise infrastructure and key equipment,' he added. Solar farm owners are understood to be investigating the claims, with industry body Solar Energy UK insisting that power inverters can be replaced relatively quickly if necessary. However, ditching Chinese suppliers entirely would not come without cost, Wood Mackenzie's Shangraw says. 'There are going to be downsides to that, especially in terms of pricing,' he warns. In recent years, the order to rip out Huawei kit from telecoms networks has been blamed for inflicting billions of pounds of extra costs on mobile and internet operators – and by extension consumers. If the worst comes to pass, it means Miliband's gamble on Chinese solar may not deliver cheap power or energy security after all.
STV News
15-05-2025
- Business
- STV News
Legislation to establish GB Energy passes through Parliament
Legislation to establish the publicly owned Great British Energy company has formally passed through the UK Parliament and into law. Scottish secretary Ian Murray called the moment a 'significant milestone' in the UK's journey towards a cleaner and more sustainable energy future. The firm will be headquartered in Aberdeen, with satellite offices planned for both Glasgow and Edinburgh. Juergen Maier, GB Energy's start-up chair, previously said the it would initially bring hundreds of jobs to the region. In total, more than 1,000 jobs could be created in Aberdeen once the company is up and running. 'Headquartered in Aberdeen, Great British Energy will help unlock tremendous opportunities for Scotland, particularly in harnessing our abundant renewable energy resources,' Murray said. 'Scotland is at the heart of our plans to become a clean energy superpower and today is a crucial step forward in boosting investment in green technologies and infrastructure, helping to create thousands of high-quality jobs across Scotland, drive economic growth, helping to lower bills for consumers and ensure energy security for generations to come.' The state-owned company won't supply power to homes but it will invest in new renewable technology as well as green power projects. For example, Great British Energy is investing £200m in funding for new rooftop solar power and renewable energy schemes for schools, hospitals and communities – helping them save on their energy bills. As part of this, GB Energy contributed £4m to Scotland's Community Energy Generation Growth Fund. Communities across Scotland can now bid for cash to set up renewable energy generation projects after the £8m fund reopened on Wednesday. 'Great British Energy comes from a simple idea: British people should own and benefit from our own natural resources,' UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said. 'We are giving people a stake in clean energy and delivering profits for the British people. As part of our Plan for Change, this will make us a clean energy superpower and help bring down energy bills for good.' The newly formed energy firm hosted a roundtable in Edinburgh on Thursday alongside the Scottish secretary for focus on the supply chain opportunities in Scotland. The meeting follows Great British Energy's initial £300m funding for offshore wind supply chains, which will support Britain's engineers, technicians, and welders and invest in offshore wind manufacturing components such as floating offshore platforms and cables in the UK's industrial heartlands. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
