Government launches £150m renewable energy manufacturing strategy
Posted on: September 9th, 2008 by Emma Young
UK government has embarked on an ambitious plan to tackle the country’s current economic situation. It plans to work towards removing obstacles for the renewable energy industry in all investments. This, it believes, will tackle two main issues of its current economic downturn - create new jobs and lower the dependence on fossil fuels.
John Hutton, the business secretary, believes that low carbon and renewable energy industry could help the country’s current economic situation in bouncing it back to growth. According to him, it could create 260,000 new jobs over the coming ten years.
The business secretary is creating two new offices. One will tackle the renewable energy deployment while the other will be for nuclear development. The Office of Renewable Energy Deployment is going to tackle any roadblocks in increasing the use of renewable energy and its supply chain. As per the draft of Renewable Energy Strategy, an investment of 100 billion pounds is expected in renewable energy by the year 2020.
The Office for Nuclear Development will assist the nuclear power generation industry in developing and maintaining its supply chain. The current figures indicate that a 20 billion pound investment is planned in construction of new nuclear power plants.
Mr John Hutton said that the new strategy, called “New Challenges, New Opportunities”, will focus primarily on low carbon and renewable energy generation. He added UK is currently world’s 6th largest manufacturer. But with the right kind of support, the industry can grow to be world leaders in renewable energy technology. This will not only help the country in overcoming its high energy costs but also provide employment to hundreds of thousands of its citizens.
