Good news: Britain is about to speed up its transition to clean energy, as reported by Reuters. With the passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the UK is one step closer to meeting the goal of decarbonizing the electrical grid by 2030.
The bill will begin fast-tracking the connection of some clean energy projects to the grid, allowing projects that are ready to go to be connected sooner than they would have been in the old system. The existing system uses a "first come, first served" process, something one British official called "outdated and unwieldy."
In that system, projects were dealt with in the order in which they entered the queue, no matter how far they may have been from being ready to connect. The new bill implements a system in which projects will be connected to the grid when they're ready.
With the changes, the government hopes to make planning decisions on at least 150 major projects sooner rather than later.
As the output of clean energy grows, electricity will get cheaper for British consumers as a whole, but there will be a more immediate impact on some. Residents living within 500 meters (just under 550 yards) of transmission and distribution towers will receive a reduction in their bills amounting to $3,230 over 10 years.
Britain has already seen a dramatic increase in the use of clean energy sources like wind and solar, and a plan was just submitted late last year for the largest onshore wind farm in England, greatly reducing the need for dirty energy. That's not to mention the plethora of solar farms and offshore wind farms ready to serve the people of Britain.
Akshay Kaul, director general for infrastructure at the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), said of the changes, "Britain will not get a clean power grid by 2030 unless an unprecedented volume of new renewable power and storage is connected to electricity networks — that's why we're cutting back the red tape and replacing the out-of-date connections system."
"This will benefit the whole country by ensuring we build the clean power system we need," said energy minister Ed Miliband.
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