UTES

Faster and fairer planning decisions on new energy infrastructure were a step closer today as Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Miliband laid before Parliament draft texts setting out the national need for a low carbon secure energy mix. He also set out an ambitious new policy for the transition to clean coal. The draft National Policy Statements (NPSs) published today are a crucial part of reforms that will remove unnecessary planning delays facing large energy proposals. They will be the basis on which individual planning decisions are made from next March by the new Infrastructure Planning Commission. To meet our low carbon energy challenge, and due to the intermittency of wind, we will need significantly more generating capacity in the longer term. One third of that larger future generating capacity must be consented and built over the next 15 years to 2025. While there are already proposals to build more energy infrastructure, more is needed to bring about the shift to a low carbon future. The NPSs include clear direction towards a massive expansion in renewables, a new nuclear programme based around ten sites assessed as potentially suitable for new build and a programme to demonstrate clean coal technology. Mr Miliband said: "The threat of climate change means we need to make a transition from a system that relies heavily on high carbon fossil fuels, to a radically different system that includes nuclear, renewable and clean coal power. "Change is also needed for energy security. In a world where our North Sea reserves are declining, a more diverse low carbon energy mix is a more secure energy mix, less vulnerable to fluctuations in the availability of any one fuel. "In exploiting new technologies we can also lock green jobs and growth, not carbon, into the UK's future energy sector. "The current planning system is a barrier to this shift. It serves neither the interests of energy security, the interests of the low carbon transition, nor the interests of people living in areas where infrastructure may be built, for the planning process to take years to come to a decision. "That is why we are undertaking fundamental reform of the planning system which will result in a more efficient, transparent and accessible process. "And our new policy framework for clean coal will drive the development of CCS which will be essential for reducing the impact of coal-fired power stations on the environment." Six NPSs are published - one overarching and one for each of the following areas: fossil fuels, nuclear, renewables, transmission networks and oil and gas pipelines - alongside the Government's final Framework for the Development of Clean Coal.