Making Britain a clean energy superpower is one of this Government’s five missions. This is critical to our country—to cut bills; to create jobs; to deliver energy security, with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030; and to meet our net zero target.
This Government have taken immediate action by setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned company to invest in clean, home-grown energy. We have also already committed to the biggest investment in clean energy in British history.
Offshore wind will play a pivotal role in our achieving clean power by 2030 and accelerating to net zero by 2050—our recently published clean power action plan sets a capacity range for between 43 GW and 50 GW by 2030. The UK is already a world leader in offshore wind technology, and the Great British Energy partnership with the Crown Estate will bring forward new offshore wind developments, with the potential to deliver up to 20 GW to 30 GW of extra offshore wind seabed leases to the market by 2030.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is playing a crucial role in supporting the growth of offshore wind, to help de-risk and accelerate planning decisions for offshore wind while protecting and enhancing the marine environment. The nature and climate change crises are of equal importance, and we must address them together.
To do this, we will implement an offshore wind environmental improvement package. Work is well advanced, and recent and upcoming milestones include:
underlining our commitment to use the powers conferred in the Energy Act 2023 to ensure that compensatory measures for unavoidable environmental impacts to marine protected areas (MPAs) can be delivered strategically rather than on a project-by-project basis, including through a library of measures that DEFRA is developing in collaboration with stakeholders;
publication of an updated joint position statement on unexploded ordinance that sets out that low noise clearance should be the default in the marine environment. This has also been published alongside a marine noise policy paper highlighting the further actions we are taking to reduce noise in our seas;
consulting on an offshore wind piling noise limit in the first half of 2025, followed by a pilot programme in 2025 and 2026, to reduce the risk of project delays because of the need to limit the amount of underwater noise generated;
consulting in spring 2025 on reforms to the environmental compensation requirements for offshore wind projects, with the aim to bring in legislation by autumn 2025. This will aim to increase the number of measures available to developers to offset the adverse impacts of offshore wind developments, while retaining a robust process that ensures that damage to our precious marine environment remains compensated for; and