With this record wind power auction, we’ve proved the rightwing doubters wrong |
In the 18 months since I became energy secretary, the government has made a simple argument: that if we want to bring down energy bills for good, Britain needs to get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuels and instead build up clean homegrown power that we control.
We know that bills rocketed when Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine because in the international fossil fuel markets, Britain is a price-taker, not a price-maker. Renewables and nuclear, on the other hand, offer a chance for Britain to stand on our own two feet in the world – making and setting the price of our own energy.
Over the last year and a half, a well-funded rightwing network has waged a relentless war against this argument. When Keir Starmer set out our mission for clean power by 2030, it said it couldn’t be done, or that even if it could it was the wrong choice.
Today’s historic offshore wind auction has proved the doubters wrong. The government has secured a record-breaking 8.4GW of offshore wind, enough to power the equivalent of more than 12m homes, the largest amount of offshore wind procured in........