Labour Supports the UK Solar Industry

by Jonny Christmas, Head of Marketing | published 16 July 2024

The new Labour government is officially in power following an historic landslide win in the General Election on 4^th July. With this change in government comes changes in policies. The Labour government, led by Sir Keir Starmer, have wasted little time having gone straight to work to put new policies in place. Thankfully, they have made green energy policies a priority in an attempt to rapidly increase solar power generation across the United Kingdom. Labour seek to increase solar and wind power as a way of reducing the UK’s reliance on fossil fuel-based energy and focus more on renewable energy sources in the global battle against climate change.

Just this week, Labour’s Energy Secretary Ed Miliband approved three solar farms in Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Rutland. Collectively the solar farms will generate around 1.35GW of power. This is a significant step because all three farms were previously blocked by the Conservative government. This quick win for Ed Miliband bodes extremely well for the future of solar power in the UK.

The three solar farms will contribute enormously to the UK’s annual solar power – there will be enough power to supply 400,000 homes with electricity and their total annual power generation will be approximately 66% of the total solar capacity installed in the UK during the whole of 2023.

There is even more good news for the future of solar power with Ed Miliband being quoted as saying: “I want to unleash a UK solar rooftop revolution. We will encourage builders and homeowners in whatever way we can to deliver this win-win technology to millions of addresses in the UK so people can create their own electricity, reduce their bills and help fight climate change.” Planning rules are said to also be in review in an attempt to make rooftop solar installations easier for existing homeowners and for buyers seeking to purchase newly built houses with solar panels already installed.

Labour’s new policies may take a little time to be fully implemented, but the fact they will be pulling out all the stops to hit their target of tripling solar power by 2030 is an encouraging sign for all who believe in solar energy. While solar energy is clean and renewable, encouraging more ways to create electricity in an environmentally friendly way will help to reduce our reliance on foreign energy sources such as that of methane gas from Russia. It is therefore a relief that renewable energy is finally being seen as a real priority by the UK government in order to safeguard the UK’s future through energy security.