Plans for 2030 clean energy could be too ambitious

January 23rd 2025
Adobe Stock 310702591

On the 13th December 2024 energy secretary Ed Miliband set out a plan to boost renewable energy supply in his ‘clean power 2030’ announcement.

This included measures to boost the UK’s renewable energy supply such as creating canopies of solar panels over outdoor car parks.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said the plans would generate £40bn a year from the private sector.

Commenting on the announcement, Michael Meakin-Blackwell, Director, MHA, said: 

Around twice as much new transmission network infrastructure will be needed in the nation’s grid by 2030 as has been built in the past decade.
In addition to this, wind turbine generator, solar and battery assets continue to increase in size and therefore technical complexity.
According to the action plan, over 22.5% of all clean energy jobs are for engineering professionals. Given the relatively short period of time and the increased complexity of the work that needs to be undertaken, it remains to be seen whether this plan is too ambitious.
The plan also highlights the ‘huge opportunity’ for reskilling and transferring skills with over 90% of the UK’s oil and gas workforce possessing skills that have medium to high transferability to the offshore renewables sector. While this may be true and could be a major pull of investors in the North-east of Scotland in particular, a high degree of retraining will be required, adding further skepticism that these targets can be hit.

Got a question about this story? Our press team can assist you with any queries you might have.

Contact the team
Share this article
Related tags