Can a new government supercharge the UK’s clean energy revolution?

With energy prices predicted to fall for the first time since 2022 and an election shaking up the UK’s political landscape, could a clean energy revolution be back on the cards? Kit Dixon, head of policy at 100% renewable energy company Good Energy, sees plenty of reasons to be optimistic. He says there are easy, affordable ways a new government could transform our energy system and has even spotted some climate-positive policies in the main parties’ manifestos.

According to Dixon, the larger parties’ energy policies mostly relate to the big stuff – system reform, net-zero targets, offshore wind and hydrogen. And while it’s crucial that those behind the infrastructure of our energy system take full responsibility for their part, those at Good Energy believe local and personal change will also be key in the years to come. So, what might political support for that smaller-scale change look like?

Britain’s bare rooftops could be one place to start. Buying our energy from abroad has contributed to some of the rising costs encountered since 2022. For Good Energy, decentralising the system and investing in local solar is a sustainable, cost-saving solution. “Putting solar on rooftops makes perfect sense as the electricity is travelling a shorter distance,” Dixon explains. “It makes use of space that’s otherwise not being used, and it allows homes and businesses, as well as their neighbours potentially, to benefit.” 

Green energy improvement of this kind could dovetail with other areas where development is needed, such as housing. Take the Labour party’s pledge to build 1.5m homes over the next five years. If developers were required to put solar panels on all the resulting buildings, the impact could be huge: “By putting a typical sized 4kW array on each roof, that new capacity would provide about 5% of the domestic electricity consumption,” Dixon says. 

The new government need not take on the transformation of our energy system alone. Suppliers also have an important part to play, and shrewd policy could encourage them. Rising demand for renewably derived energy has seen suppliers introduce green energy tariffs over the past 25 years. This is a step in the right direction, Dixon says, but better regulation could help bring about the scale of renewable system we’ll need to meet key net-zero targets: “The problem is that renewable energy certificates aren’t always directly linked to the actual energy sold,” he says. “Suppliers can purchase power on the wholesale market, which may have been generated using fossil fuels, and then buy renewable certificates to allow them to sell that carbon intensive power to their customers as green. 

“Another issue is that certificates have a year-long life span. Certificates created because of renewable generation in very windy or sunny periods can therefore be used to ‘green’ electricity consumed in periods where the majority of the power actually being used is being generated by gas power stations. For example, a supplier could buy a certificate pertaining to solar generation on a Sunday afternoon in August when electricity demand is low and solar generation is high. It could then use that certificate to tell a customer that the power they are using during a dark, cold, and still December evening is renewable,” Dixon explains.

Part of what sets Good Energy apart from other energy providers is that they respond to consumer demand for green energy by “finding new renewable generators to contract with, contributing additional capacity to the grid, rather than just using what’s already there,” explains Dixon. He and his colleagues would love to see a policy that requires others to do the same. The resulting power would be greener, but crucially the resulting generators would contribute to a more robust renewable energy system overall.

There are also opportunities for energy suppliers and customers to work together to use energy more sustainably, he says, which is why Good Energy would welcome political support for smart meters. They see the devices as key to the widespread adoption of energy saving solutions. Why? Because, says Dixon, they can provide the level of data needed to allow suppliers to pass on incentives (as well as the resulting cost savings) to their customers to use electricity at certain times of day. 

The difference in price for charging an electric vehicle, for example, can vary significantly. A dual rate meter lets customers share with their supplier whether they’re using energy at peak time (usually during the day) v off-peak (usually during the night). However, these several-hour windows offer much less detailed information than a smart meter, which can provide updates every half an hour. This allows customers to observe and adjust their energy use to make savings, while suppliers can more accurately record usage and pass on resulting cost reductions.

It also works the other way, by allowing those who have the ability to generate their own power such as those with solar panels, to receive more accurate payments for the energy they’re exporting to the national grid. Dixon believes that with a smart reader, and the more detailed data it provides, most solar panel owners will earn more.

There are other simple energy switches that Good Energy would like to see in manifestos that could help the average bill payer to save. Take the levies often included on electricity bills that support social initiatives like renewable obligation and the warm home discount. The Good Energy team recognise the positive impact of these schemes, but see a fairer way for them to be funded. 

Decentralising the system and investing in local solar is a sustainable, cost-saving solution

“Often fuel-poor families live in poorly insulated homes, resulting in unavoidable high energy use, so they will be paying more on these social schemes than those who can afford to pay,” Dixon notes. If we instead shifted the levies into general taxation, it “would be a fair way to pay for the essential green infrastructure we need to decarbonise our energy system while maintaining the support delivered through some of those schemes”.

So, with the smaller-scale stuff covered, what else is sounding the right note in the major parties’ manifestos? Dixon is pleased to see that Labour has promised to reinstate the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and praises the Liberal Democrats’ proposed “rooftop solar revolution” for solar panels on housing. He also welcomes the target being set by Labour for a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030, and the Conservatives’ pledge to treble our offshore wind capacity. (Among the election commitments made by other parties are the SNP’s promise to decarbonise 1m homes by 2030, and the Greens’ pledge to aim for net-zero by 2040.)  

Some of those policies, if adhered to, could help to tackle the climate crisis: “If those kinds of numbers and capacity levels can be achieved, it will reduce the UK’s carbon emissions,” he says.

Main Image: ArtistGNDPhotography