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British Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey has revealed that the UK is likely to build 20 new gas-fired power plants over the next few years, signalling that gas is to play a major role in the UK's energy mix for at least the next two decades.
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Davey said the government is planning 20 GW of new gas capacity by 2030, but insists that the surge in new gas capacity would not crowd out investment in renewables or force the UK into breaking its legally-binding carbon budgets.
"I strongly support more gas, just as I strongly support more renewable energy," said Davey. "We need a big expansion of renewable energy and of gas if we are to tackle our climate change challenges."
Davey’s comments come ahead of the release of a new national gas strategy, expected this autumn, and foreshadow what is likely to be a tense debate between the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Treasury over whether or not to include a 2030 decarbonisation target for the power sector in the upcoming Energy Bill.
The Chancellor George Osborne is thought to be fiercely opposed to the target, claiming it may discourage investment in new gas capacity. Other government figures, including Liberal Democrats, have expressed support for the target as necessary to ensure the UK meets its long term carbon targets.
A decarbonisation target could force new gas plants to choose between fitting CCS technology by 2030 or limit the amount they are allowed to operate, post-2030, in line with stringent emissions targets.
Questions remain over cost and effectiveness of large-scale CCS technologies, which are not yet ready for commercial deployment, and critics have warned the target will make it more difficult to secure natural gas investors, since they would be unable to guarantee maximum returns over a plant’s whole lifespan.
Davey is thought to be broadly in favour of a decarbonisation target, but has distanced himself from both gas industry lobbyists and green groups that claim the UK needs to make a clear choice between investment in renewables or gas.
"People who see the UK's energy future as a competition between renewable and gas are misreading the next phase," Davey has said.
News of the new gas plants has angered green groups, buoyed by the government’s recent claims of persuing a greener economy.
"Green-lighting a whole fleet of new fossil fuel power stations would cause a huge jump in emissions and blow this autumn's once-in-a-generation opportunity to replace dirty power stations with clean ones," said Joss Garman, political director of Greenpeace.
"Only days ago Ed Davey and Danny Alexander said they were fully committed to achieving completely carbon-free power in the UK by 2030.”