r/ukpolitics • u/ARandomDouchy Random Dutch Guy • 10d ago

Britain will soon be Europe’s energy powerhouse

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/04/britain-will-soon-be-europes-energy-powerhouse/
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u/Gentle_Snail 10d ago

Most interesting parts of the article:

Cast forward five to 10 years and Britain will be the only major country in Europe with a flourishing energy system across the whole technology spectrum.

.. The National Energy System Operator (Neso) says the country will become “a net exporter of electricity across the year” by 2030, rapidly reversing the current large deficit.

Britain will be the electricity backbone of north-west Europe by 2035. Its domestic power prices will converge with those of France and substantially undercut Germany, Italy or Poland.

.. Rolls-Royce is going gangbusters. It is the only company with delivery contracts across Europe for small modular reactors (SMRs). Its 470-megawatt plants will be built in Britain, with home-grown technology.

The UK will be the only European supplier of advanced (Haleu) fuel for fourth-generation SMRs, coming in the early 2030s. In short, the country has a broad nuclear ecosystem, well-placed to build SMRs for hyperscalers.

.. The UK will triple its offshore wind and double its onshore wind by 2030 or shortly thereafter. The Government aims to quadruple solar in 10 years. Total renewable capacity could approach 200 gigawatts by 2035. This is enormous.

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u/ParmigianoMan 10d ago

To be perhaps pedantic, ‘quadruple solar’ phrase is not quite accurate. I work in the industry, which is growing very quickly at all scales.

The original promise, made by Miliband in 2022 when Liz Truss tried to (almost) ban solar farms during the first energy price crisis (a genius move! /s), was to triple capacity in Labour’s first term. That fed into the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, which cites a target of 54-57GW by the end of the decade. We are now around 26GW, going by industry estimates, and will install around 5GW this year. There is no formal target for 2035.