The quick rollout of renewable energy infrastructure and projects is critical to bringing down energy prices.writes Sam Richards.
His comments that he expects household energy bills to remain high for the foreseeable future were a blow for millions of people already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. As things stand, it’s far too difficult to build anything in the UK, let alone critical energy infrastructure such as new offshore wind farms, small modular nuclear reactors or the new pylons needed to move clean energy electrons around the country.
Why does it take up to 13 years for a new offshore wind farm to go from idea to generating power, despite construction taking just two to three years? Small modular reactors could be a game changer, we could have fleets of these mini nuclear power stations, that are about the size of two football pitches, dotted across the country. But if they get caught up in the kind of regulations needed for their bigger cousins, we can kiss goodbye to them ever taking off in the UK.