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New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
Is the UK’s Clean Power 2030 Plan achievable?
7/5/2025
10 min read
Feature
‘Yes, but…’ was the answer given to that question by RWE’s Alice Barrs, National Grid’s Ben Godfrey and Octopus’ Rachel Fletcher FEI to a packed Energy Policy Debate held at the Energy Institute at the end of April. New Energy World Senior Editor Will Dalrymple reports the highlights of a timely and provocative discussion about the UK renewables targets – where flexibility will be key.
The Energy Institute’s first Energy Policy Debate of the year, chaired by Paul Spence, Former EDF Energy Director of Strategy and Corporate Affairs, considered the ambitious UK plan for a ‘Clean Power’ energy system by 2030. That Clean Power 2030 target consists of two principal goals: first, that clean sources (renewables and nuclear power) will produce at least as much power as Great Britain consumes in total; second, clean sources will produce at least 95% of generation, with the remaining 5% from unabated gas.
All three speakers agreed this goal is possible, but a ‘stretch’. Much of the discussion covered problematic areas.
Presenting the point of view of a leading power generator was RWE Head of Corporate Affairs Alice Barrs. She said: ‘Over the last five years, we added around 20 TWh of renewable generation to the system. That needs to move to 200 TWh added to the system in the next five years [a tenfold increase]. It's incredibly challenging.’