UK Labour party to abolish onshore wind ban if elected: Miliband

The UK opposition Labour Party is standing by its promise to overturn a ban on onshore wind development, shadow secretary of state for energy Ed Miliband said Feb. 27.

Speaking at the International Energy Week conference in London, Miliband said government bureaucracy had effectively blocked renewable energy growth.

"Difficult decisions are ducked. Consultations are used to avoid decision-making. This institutional inertia is just not good enough -- it blocks business investment and drives up bills for the British people," he said.

Labour is leading in voter polls ahead of a likely general election later this year. Earlier in February it abandoned a GBP28.00 billion/year ($35.31 billion/year) green investment plan, blaming rising interest rate costs.

Miliband said one of the first things his department would focus on would be the lifting of a ban on onshore wind, in place since 2015. Reversing planning limitations on onshore wind would help meet Labour's pledge to decarbonize power by 2030, he said.

Labour also plans to use a new public company, GB Energy, to invest billions to develop clean energy.

"Clean power systems are the lynchpin of net zero," Miliband said.

Onshore wind farms can be built in a just over a year, but the planning framework in England still dissuades new development despite the current government's recent attempts to improve the situation.

S&P Global Commodity Insights forecasts GB wind generation to increase significantly over the next five years, rising from an average 11 GW in 2024 to over 18 GW in 2028 -- driven by offshore wind additions.

Upstream divide

While allowing existing oil and gas assets to continue operating, Labour would not support new oil and gas licensing in the UK, Miliband said.

The current Conservative government recently restarted upstream licensing rounds on an annual basis, as part of a policy shift in favor of greater energy security and reduced import needs.

This policy is seen as a clear dividing line between the UK's two main political parties ahead of a general election in the coming months.

The Labour Party has promised to extend(opens in a new tab) a proposed increase in tax on oil and gas producers through to the end of the next parliament if it gains power, raising some GBP10.8 billion. The hike, to 78% of profits, had been due to run to end-2025 under previous Labour plans.

Hydrogen and CCUS

Miliband also emphasized the role of hydrogen and carbon capture and storage in a future net-zero UK energy system, as well as battery storage and demand-side management.

North Sea fossil fuel infrastructure could be repurposed after the end of their lives for hydrogen and CCUS, he said.

Too often hydrogen, CCUS and renewables projects are being "stalled by sluggish decision making," Miliband said.

Labour's 2030 goals would include doubling onshore wind, trebling solar, quadrupling offshore wind, "with support from nuclear power and other technologies, and back-up dispatchable electricity through gas with CCS, hydrogen and battery storage, alongside more flexible demand," he said.

Key barriers to the energy transition were the power grid, planning constraints, supply chains and a skills shortage, which a Labour government would address, he said.

Noting the success of the US Inflation Reduction Act in bolstering the green energy economy, Miliband said targeted public investment could help "crowd in" private capital to the energy transition.

Miliband also cited plans to invest in batteries, port expansion for wind turbine manufacture deployment and the steel industry.

The UK, along with many other countries, faces "interlocking crises" of "energy insecurity, a stagnant economy [and] the climate crisis," he said. The clean energy transition can address all of these, he said.

"It really matters that we see this as the big economic opportunity of the 21st century."