‘Another week, another renewables conference.’
These were the opening words of Renewables UK Chief Executive Dan McGrail. Two weeks ago, Renewables UK hosted their biggest ever Global Offshore Wind Conference and this week Corinna Scholes, Head of Onshore Stakeholder Engagement GB, and I attended a reception in London to celebrate the anniversary of the UK Net Zero Act being passed into law. It speaks to the expertise and skill of Dan and the team at Renewables UK that they’ve pulled off two excellent industry events in such quick succession.
At the event, we heard from Chris Skidmore MP and Ed Miliband, Shadow Secretary of State of Climate Change and Net Zero for the United Kingdom who reaffirmed recent Labour green policy commitments and expressed the party’s desire to ensure the ambition of Net Zero becomes a reality.
It was reassuring to hear Labour’s commitment and desire to work across political parties, regardless of the next government. For too long Net Zero has been a buzz word, threatening to become a pipedream. Net Zero needs to become a reality and with up to £18 billion worth of investment and spend over the next five years, SSE is dealing in actions, not ambitions.
Ed highlighted the ‘four horsemen of the apocalypse’ – Planning, Grid, Supply Chain, Skills, undoubtedly these present the biggest challenge and barrier to renewable deployment, but with industry and policy in alignment, these are challenges we can overcome. Providing we address these now.
Not too far from the Renewables UK reception for Wind Week, SSE had our own side reception with representatives from Government and Industry in attendance. Our CEO, Alistair Philips-Davies echoed the sentiments made in our Policy Delivery Plan, an excellent document which shows our vision for how we can actually take the Net Zero dream and make it a reality.
So, another week and another wind conference indeed, but with each week that passes, I’m heartened as more progress is made and the policy environment becomes more enabling. The challenges are there for all to see, but with each week and conference that does go by, the ambition, vision and desire to solve these challenges becomes even more apparent.