Achieving the 2030 Clean Power Target

A man in a blue shirt and dark blazer with red stitching. Background is bright with natural light. — Tom Glover, UK Country Chair, RWE

Tom Glover, RWE UK Country Chair

The ‘mission-led’ approach of this government, placing clean energy as one of its top five priorities, is commendable and we welcome the Clean Power target as a ‘north star’ to ensure focus and drive towards a clear goal.

We recognise, as the UK’s leading generator, that we have an important role to play in shaping the journey to clean power, and to provide constructive insight and solutions to ensure the policy framework is effective.

Therefore, over the coming weeks, experts across RWE will explore the challenges and opportunities on the route to 2030 Clean Power in a series of papers ‘RWE’s Clean Power 2030 Reflections’. We will deep dive into the issues underpinning the delivery of some of critical technologies including offshore wind, onshore renewables, and firm, flexible generation, as well as tackling some of the pertinent cross-cutting issues, such as planning reform.

In this first piece, RWE's UK Country Chair, Tom Glover, explores some of the welcome first steps already taken to reach clean power, as well as some of the key outstanding challenges'

A graphic depicting RWE's 2030 clean power target with illustrations of factories, wind turbines, and solar panels.

A graphic showing four wind turbines on a blue background, with text advocating for onshore wind reforms in England.

A man stands with a document and a woman sits at a desk with a computer. A world map highlighting RWE and wind turbines is on the wall.

Four individuals discuss extending CFDs on energy contracts, with a focus on revenue certainty and charts on a screen.

A seated person in a wheelchair discusses project bids with an elderly individual at a desk with a computer.

A person points at a display showing a map of the UK and a graph, discussing zonal pricing impact on costs.

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Clean Power 2030 Podcast

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In summary

The 2030 Clean Power target is extremely ambitious. Meeting it will be a huge challenge, but it has the potential to bring growth and prosperity to many parts of the UK.
The task ahead is huge. In the next five years, renewable generation will need to grow by around 200 TWh (compared with 20 TWh over the last five years). Twice as much transmission capacity will need to be built than in the last ten.
The government have taken some welcome steps towards meeting the target, including removing the de-facto ban on new onshore wind in England, establishing ‘Mission Control’ within the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, and introducing reforms to unblock the planning system.
Decisions made in the next few months will determine whether the target will be met. In particular, the next Contract for Difference (CfD) auction later this year (Allocation Round 7) will be the first real test of the target.
The government is currently consulting on reforms of the CfD. Some of these reforms will be helpful – for example, replacing the budget cap with capacity ‘ambitions’ and publishing a forward schedule for future rounds to provide more visibility. In addition, increasing the length of the CfD (currently 15 years) will bring greater revenue certainty and reduce strike prices – we recommend an increase to at least 25 years.
However, some challenges remain. With no time to lose, there needs to be a relentless focus on shovel-ready projects that can kick-start economic growth as soon as possible. It is concerning that the government are consulting on allowing projects without planning consent to participate in AR7. Not only is this unnecessary, as there is a strong competitive pipeline of projects already with consent, it also risks delivery and could be costlier for the consumer.
With a required annual investment programme of around £40 billion, investors need clarity on future market design as soon as possible. The sheer scale of the investment required in the next few years means the complexity and disruption of introducing zonal pricing in parallel cannot be ignored or underplayed. A decision to move to zonal pricing will significantly increase the cost of meeting the clean power target and potentially make it unachievable.

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