As we transition to a smarter, more flexible energy system – and start to embrace major challenges such as decarbonising heat – businesses will face big changes as well as opportunities. We ask Caroline Bragg from the ADE to share her thoughts on what needs to happen to support businesses, and the UK, on the journey to successfully meeting the UK’s 2050 net zero target.
The chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to deliver his Budget next week, on Wednesday 3 March and there are plenty of predictions circulating about what we can expect. Of course, supporting a recovery in the economy will be the main priority. So the focus is likely to be on growth, via fuelling investment. Winding down pandemic support schemes is also expected, as the country starts to move out of our third lockdown.
In the first Energy HQ podcast of 2021, we take a brief look back the major announcements at the end of 2020 - including the publication of the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution and the long-awaited Energy White Paper - as well as look forward to what businesses can expect in 2021 to help them plan their road to net zero.
What are the next steps following the Energy White Paper? What policy is coming next? And where should businesses be prioritising investment?
We welcome Adam Bell, Head of Energy Strategy at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, who was a key architect of the Energy White Paper, alongside Robert Buckley, Head of Relationship Development at Cornwall Insight and Paul French from npower Business Solutions to provide a must-listen outlook for the year ahead.
Hydrogen is a major part of the government’s net zero strategy, appearing as second billing in the Prime Minister’s recently-released Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.
According to Boris Johnson, in his foreword to the plan, we could soon be cooking our breakfast on hydrogen while breathing in cleaner air, thanks to trucks, trains, ships and planes running on hydrogen rather than fossil fuels.
Hydrogen is also being hailed as the answer to decarbonising the UK’s heating.
But, of course, this is all hypothetical. Because as yet, there is no mainstream, affordable or low-carbon-manufactured source of hydrogen commercially available.
Happy new year! Let’s hope 2021 is a brighter year filled with less uncertainty.
Whatever happens though, there’s good news for those of us who work in the energy management arena.