Thursday 25 July saw the official announcement by the Labour government of the establishment of GB Energy. So, what exactly is GB Energy and what might its establishment mean for us here in North East England?
What does the government say?
According to the government website:
“Great British Energy will be a publicly owned, clean-energy company. It will own, manage and operate clean power projects, such as wind farms, up and down the country. It will be headquartered in Scotland and paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.”
The government goes on to say that GB Energy will help people and families by investing clean power projects all across the United Kingdom, such as wind farms, which they say are the cheapest forms of electricity generation to build and operate. The government says, “this will help make our country energy independent, kicking tyrants like Putin to the curb, tackling climate change and saving families money”.
The website also states: “Investing in clean domestic power will create jobs and build supply chains in every corner of the UK.”
In explaining why we need a publicly owned energy company, it claims that, “it should be the British people who own and benefit from our national resources. Great British Energy will allow us to use resources that belong to all of us, and that should be harnessed for the common good – maximising our public assets, rather than flogging them off”.
It is then correctly noted that we have public ownership of energy in this country already, in the form of foreign governments, so that “at the moment, taxpayers in other countries profit from our energy infrastructure but the British people are missing out”.
Finally, it is noted that Great British Energy is: “part of this government’s mission to make the UK a clean-energy superpower. As well as harnessing the power of clean energy, we will invest in the industries of the future, and create 650,000 jobs across the country by 2030. We’ll invest in home insulation upgrades to help families save money on their bills, and improve access to nature, promote biodiversity, and protect our landscapes and wildlife.”
How will it work?
It has been reported that GB Energy will work as an investment vehicle. It is said that it will channel funding – both public and private – into a series of renewable energy projects across the country. It is further argued that, “through the government’s local power plan (which sits within GB Energy’s remit) councils and community groups will be supported in developing their own clean power projects which will be backed with initial funding from the company”.
It is envisaged that GB Energy will retain a stake in each project and will either invest the proceeds in other renewable energy projects or return them to the government. The early priorities are said to be well-established methods such as solar farms or onshore wind developments, but it is also said that “GB Energy will later also look to increase investment in emerging technologies such as carbon capture and storage”.
Cooperation in the renewable energy sector
The establishment of GB Energy will present opportunities for small energy coops. The Cooperative Party, affiliated to the Labour party has argued that the Great British energy bill can change fundamentally the way we own and produce renewable energy across the country. It states that, “one of the three key priorities of GB Energy will be to massively scale up community-owned energy, developing 8GWs of energy from community energy projects that your communities will directly own”.
The Cooperative Party has also noted that what GB Energy’s chair had to say on 25 July about community energy in GB Energy’s founding document: “We will be investing in community-owned energy generation, reducing the pressures on the transmission grid while giving local people a stake in their transition to net zero.”
A just transition for the North East
One area, where the North East should have a just transition is in the area of oil workers from the region getting jobs in GB Energy and its affiliated industries. There must be no repeat of what happened in the 1980s when miners lost their jobs and were directed to the DWP vans to sign on the sick, keeping the unemployment figures down and ensuring that little or nothing was brought into coalfield areas to replace the skilled jobs lost.
A number of unions involved in the energy industry have described a just transition as follows:
“With over 200,000 members right across the energy and energy-intensive industries, GMB, Prospect, UNISON and Unite asked senior representatives of those affected what they wanted from a just transition.
“This is what they said they wanted for their members, their families and their communities.
- A balanced low-carbon energy mix
- Investment in skills and infrastructure
- Protecting and creating high-quality jobs and employment
- No community left behind.”
This seems particularly important for the North East. We have traditionally been involved in the fossil fuel industries, firstly through the development of coal and being the world’s first modern, developed coalfield and then through our links with the oil industry in the North Sea, both in terms of building huge oil tankers, such as the Esso Northumbria, launched in 1969 and oil rigs at AMEC in Wallsend and in terms of men going from the region to work on the oil rigs themselves out in the North Sea. We still have the skills that can make a huge difference in the transition to a green economy and I hope that workers from this region are given the chance to show what they can do in relation to GB Energy.
Similarly, I hope that there are appropriately funded opportunities for people in the North East to get involved in initiatives linked to GB Energy. It would be good to see local energy coops developed, using our natural advantages in wind power, solar power, wave power and even tidal power in some parts of the North East. Furthermore, there is the potential of hot water from old mine workings already being developed in places such as Gateshead and Seaham.
Finally, it is also important that we ensure that as much of the profit from these potential green energy sources is not leaked away to shareholders many miles away and instead stays in our region. To do this, we need to develop community wealth building. The new North East Combined Authority could use local partners, such as universities, in order to facilitate the development of our own green energy sources and ensure that the profits stay here for the benefit of the people in what is the most deprived region in the country. Whether we are considering combating the climate crisis, getting jobs for our young people, or helping to revive our local it just all makes sense.
Summing up
GB Energy presents great opportunities for both our nation and for us here in the North East. It is to be hoped that sufficient investment is found for it to be the success it needs to be and that people here and across the country are given the opportunity to get behind it and make it work for themselves in their localities.
