It’s just been announced that British seabed owned by the Crown Estate is going to be used to build new windfarms to help with the long-term goal of making the UK self-sufficient thanks to clean energy.

The news was released by Great Birish Energy, a publicly owned energy company established by the new Labour Government.

Their stated mission is to increase the number of renewable energy projects around the UK, using £8.3bn in state funding, which comes from a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.

The initiative will lead to lower bills for households, but it won’t happen overnight. As renewable energy projects start coming online, we’ll start to see the effect on bills. We are going as fast as we can”

Ed Miliband – Energy Secretary, UK Government

The Crown Estate, manages a huge portfolio of property and land around the UK, including the majority of our seabeds (which extend out to twelve nautical miles from the mainland) to help fund the Royal Family and this deal will see them lease back some of those seabeds on which the new windfarms can be developed and built.

It typically takes between ten to fifteen years to establish an offshore windfarm, but the UK Government think they can cut that figure down by half.

Their hope is that Great Birish Energy (or GB Energy), which was a key manifesto pledge during Labours campaign, will reduce the UK’s over reliance on the fossil fuel market, especially after price rises seen in that area following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“A sprint for clean energy is a route to energy independence, because dictators and petrostates don’t control it. It is the best way to keep bills down for good.”

Ed Miliband – Energy Secretary, UK Government

However, Conservative critics of GB Energy have stated that the new initiatives:

“Will end up costing families, not cutting bills. It’s a financial black hole – funnelling taxpayers’ money into reducing risk for multi-million-pound energy companies.”

Shadow Energy Secretary – Claire Coutinho

Whilst £8.bn has already been provided to GB Energy, the Government hopes to secure another £60bn in private investments for the new company, with the aim of creating windfarm projects capable of generating 20 to 30GW of offshore energy by 2030.

Currently the agreement is only for seabeds around England and Wales but discussions are on going with the Crown Estate and the Scottish Government to support local projects there as well.