Description
Between 2010 and 2022 the UK built 44.2 GW of renewable energy capacity, such that renewables now account for 41.5% of electricity generation (BEIS 2023). This transformation is puzzling for two reasons. In general, renewable energy has suffered from profitability problems compared to fossil fuel investments, making renewables relatively unattractive for private companies. Secondly, the British energy system has been heavily privatised, and companies have robust incentives to maximise their returns from existing assets rather than to invest in new technologies. How then has the British state worked to make renewable energy technologies into attractive investments? What have the socio-economic and socio-ecological implications of these strategies been? Should we ultimately understand this energy transition as emblematic of effective climate policy? I engage with these questions in two parts. Firstly, I critically examine the transformation of British electricity policy from the Climate Change Act in 2008 to the adoption of a net zero target in 2019. Secondly, I focus on how British electricity policy has entered a phase of crisis since 2022, as the governments new climate and energy policy programmes seem unable to deliver the UK’s climate targets under pressure from tightening carbon budgets, supply chain disruptions, inflation and rising interest rates.
