The UK declared “clean growth” one of the four “grand challenges” of its new national industrial strategy, in an announcement that otherwise contained little new for the renewable energy industry.
Britain’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS) said the UK’s clean economy could be on course to grow four times faster than GDP, as it pledged to get behind low-carbon technologies and services.
Clean growth joined artificial intelligence, mobility and the ageing society in the list of key challenges for global economies.
The new strategy otherwise added little to the national Clean Growth Strategy released in October, which put offshore wind at the heart of the UK’s renewables policy while barely mentioning other sources such as onshore wind and PV.
The next key step for offshore wind in the UK is securing a so-called sector deal – under which the government works closely with a specific industry to achieve common goals.
DBEIS announced the first sector deals today – with offshore wind not on the list – but is known to be working with the industry on a package.
Hugh McNeal, CEO of industry body RenewableUK, said: “The government is rightly putting clean growth at the heart of our nation’s Industrial Strategy. Renewables are set to become the backbone of our modern energy system and the plummeting cost of wind power means onshore and offshore wind can help improve the competitiveness of UK industry.
“So it’s disappointing that the strategy doesn’t set out how we can use onshore wind, the cheapest new generation source, to power industrial growth.”
The industrial strategy is seen as a key plank of the UK's efforts to address the challenges posed by Brexit and the low productivity that plagues its economy.
