GB Energy boss says clean power must ‘show benefit’ to local groups

The boss of Great British Energy has said new clean power projects must “show benefit” to local groups, as ministers accelerate the UK’s switch to net zero.

Jurgen Maier, chairman of the newly established public body, said policymakers must “take communities with us” during the green energy transition.

His comments come as Labour tries to decarbonise Britain’s power grid by the end of the decade, in a push that will require a massive ramp up in the amount of pylons and wind farms in rural areas to meet growing energy demand.

The policies have already provoked a backlash, with local councils taking legal action earlier this year over plans to build a solar farm in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, though the action was later dropped.

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has vowed to take on “blockers” opposed to the rollout of new turbines and pylons, calling it a matter of “national security” and “economic justice”.

Officials are also consulting on reforms to the planning system, to help push through green energy schemes more quickly.

But when outlining GB Energy’s plans at the CBI’s annual conference on Monday, Mr Maier said: “In all of this we need to take our communities with us.”

He said: “We do need to put an infrastructure and planning Bill through but actually you do have to go through planning and take communities with us.

“We want to invest in community energy schemes, local power schemes… to show we can pass some of the benefits of this great renewable energy on to our consumers, which I don’t think we’ve done enough of yet.”

Headquartered in Aberdeen, GB Energy was pitched as a key part of Labour’s clean energy strategy during the general election.

The public body will invest in onshore and offshore wind and other schemes to help speed up private investment in the sector, and has been promised £8.3 billion of public money over the next five years.

Mr Maier called the effort “a three party partnership. It’s the private sector predominantly, it’s the public sector, and it’s community.”