Renewables support pledged in £150m manufacturing strategy
Monday 08 September 2008
Business secretary John Hutton said today that renewable and low carbon energy industries can help the UK to rebound from current economic difficulties - creating 260,000 jobs over the next 10 years.
Mr Hutton launched a new £150 million government manufacturing strategy, with a stated aim of "seizing the opportunities in the low carbon economy".
With the right support in place, we can grow our nuclear and renewables industries to become world-leaders.
Higher energy prices will mean industry requiring more clean energy sources and energy efficiency systems, the new strategy suggests.
He is creating a new Office for Renewable Energy Deployment to address obstacles to the use of more renewable energy and to help develop the UK supply chain. This summer's draft Renewable Energy Strategy predicted a £100 billion investment in renewable energy up to 2020.
Today also saw Mr Hutton revealing plans for a new Office of Nuclear Development will help develop the nuclear supply chain to help British business benefit from the £20 billion expected to be spent on a new generation of nuclear power plants.
Launching the new strategy, entitled "New Challenges, New Opportunities", Mr Hutton said the UK was still the world's sixth largest manufacturer, but pointed to the changing global landscape for manufacturing - directed towards low carbon technologies.
Mr Hutton said: "I want the UK to be at the forefront of opportunities opened up by the move towards a low carbon economy. With the right support in place, we can grow our nuclear and renewables industries to become world-leaders in green technologies, supporting hundreds of thousands of 'green collar jobs'."
The government is to consult and produce an integrated Low Carbon Industrial Strategy next year, with an "immediate focus" on supply chains for nuclear and renewable energy equipment and Low Carbon Vehicles.
Opportunities
The manufacturing strategy itself predicts opportunities for the expansion of machinery equipment manufacturing, "especially those linked to electricity generation technologies", and the opportunities from the global demand for more efficient engines and transport.
The document also cites the CBI Climate Change Task Force report in stating that there are "considerable opportunities" for smaller companies in areas including renewable electricity and road transport fuels, domestic energy efficiency and housing.
An Office for Renewable Energy Deployment will be created via next year's completed Renewable Energy Strategy, with predictions that marine renewable energy alone could bring in £300-900 million in revenues by 2020.
The move to electric cars should also bring opportunities to British companies, the strategy states, and the government is supporting a major new pilot programme to foster plug-in hybrids which can be fuelled by electricity from the grid or petrol. A further programme will work to demonstrate the use of electric cars in a "real-world" transport system.
The government's manufacturing strategy aims to get British companies more involved in the global demand for low carbon transport including electric and hybrid vehicles, such as this model shown at this summer's British International Motorshow
It said: "Whilst CCS is not yet demonstrated at a commercial scale, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that CCS will need to be installed on the equivalent of 630 coal-fired power plants by 2030."
Nuclear energy will also represent opportunities for UK industry - both the seven or eight new large reactors needed in this country and the 60 new plants needed around the world.
The government said it wanted to create a UK nuclear supply chain competitive with that abroad, modeled on the expansion of the oil industry in the North Sea during the 1970s, through a new Office of Nuclear Development and a new National Skills Academy for Nuclear.
Skills
With the renewable energy sector crying out for more skills to fill the thousands of "green collar jobs" predicted by both the manufacturing strategy and last year's Renewable Energy Strategy, the government has said it will convene a high level forum on the issue this autumn.
It said: "The forum will establish a cross-sector employer-led Strategic Advisory Panel. The Panel will be tasked with aligning the skills system behind the challenges and opportunities of a low carbon, resource efficient economy."
Mr Hutton, who launched the manufacturing strategy jointly with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said: "We must attract more talented young people - the lifeblood of future success - into the industry and ensure that this talent is nurtured and developed."
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