A new amendment to the Great British Energy Bill includes a clause supporting community-owned energy projects.
Amendment 8 during the third reading in the House of Lords was pushed by community energy campaigners Power for People, with support from over 80 MPs from various parties. The bill has gone through the report stage and is on its third reading. The amendment will help the company specifically help 100s of community energy projects including ourselves. It was put forward by Lord Phillip Hunt, Baron of Kings Heath.
Lord Hunt explained:
‘This amendment clarifies that Great British Energy may facilitate, encourage and participate in the things mentioned in subsection (2)(a) to (d) through projects involving or benefiting local communities.’
The Great British Energy Bill is a parliamentary bill by the government to establish a publicly owned energy company. Its goal is to drive Britain to become a clean energy superpower by 2030 by decarbonising the grid and helping create over 650,000 new jobs. The bill also aims to deliver infrastructure to support a transition to net zero with the Secretary of State, Ed Miliband.
With its £8.3 billion investment during this parliament, this amendment will allow community energy projects across the UK to access much-needed support and funding for power building across the UK. Through its Local Power Plan, it aims to deliver the government’s goal of 8GW of community energy by 2030.
In Labour’s manifesto, they promised an all-round approach to the UK energy mix, saying:
‘Labour will deploy more distributed production capacity through our Local Power Plan. Great British Energy will partner with energy companies, local authorities, and co-operatives to install thousands of clean power projects, through a combination of onshore wind, solar, and hydropower projects.’
Surya Community Energy welcomes this amendment because it recognises the benefits of community energy, which aligns with the government’s clean energy goals by 2030.