Clean Power 2030 Action Plan
Overview
Published December 2024 by DESNZ. Sets out how Great Britain will achieve clean power by 2030. The National Policy Statement EN-1 (in force 6 January 2026) provides the planning framework for nationally significant energy infrastructure. The Clean Power Metrics publication (September 2025, updated April 2026) tracks official progress statistics.
Clean power target definition
By 2030, Great Britain generates sufficient clean power to meet total annual electricity demand, supported by gas only when essential.
- At least 95% of GB electricity from clean sources
- Carbon intensity: below 50 gCO₂e/kWh by 2030 (from 171 gCO₂e/kWh in 2023)
Excludes Energy from Waste (EfW, ~3% of 2030 generation) and most CHP from “clean” definition.
Capacity deployment targets (2030)
| Technology | Current (GW) | 2030 Target (GW) | Increase Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Offshore Wind | 14.8 | 43–50 | ~3× |
| Onshore Wind | 14.2 | 27–29 | ~2× |
| Solar | 16.6 | 45–47 | ~3× |
| Batteries | 4.5 | 23–27 | ~5–6× |
| Long-Duration Storage | 2.9 | 4–6 | ~1.5–2× |
| Nuclear | 5.9 | 3–4 | (decline — ageing fleet) |
| Unabated Gas (reserve) | 35.6 | ~35 | (maintained as reserve) |
Investment required
- £40 billion average annual investment (2025–2030) in 2024 prices:
- £30bn/year: Generation assets (DESNZ estimate)
- £10bn/year: Transmission network assets (NESO estimate)
- National Wealth Fund: £5.8bn to hydrogen, carbon capture, ports, and green steel
- Hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs in clean energy sectors
Key actions
Grid connections (critical bottleneck)
When the plan was published, the electricity connections queue contained 739 GW of projects — far exceeding any plausible 2030 need. Reforms:
- “First ready, first connected” replaces “first come, first served” (enacted in Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025)
- 80 critical network and infrastructure projects prioritised
- Twice as much transmission infrastructure needed by 2030 vs. past decade
- Zombie projects to be removed from queue
- NESO coordinating queue reform
Governance
- Clean Power 2030 Unit established with Advisory Commission
- Quarterly monitoring and rapid issue identification
- 2026 milestone: Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (10-year horizon through 2035)
Skills (Clean Energy Skills Annex, December 2024)
- 1 in 5 jobs will experience skill demand shift through net zero transition (~3 million workers needing reskilling)
- 135,000–725,000 net new jobs could be created in low-carbon sectors by 2030 (CCC estimate)
- Office for Clean Energy Jobs (DESNZ) coordinates with DfE, Skills England, and devolved administrations
- Critical cross-cutting challenge: construction workers needed simultaneously for offshore wind, onshore renewables, heat networks, and buildings retrofit
Planning and permitting
- Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (Royal Assent December 2025) enables:
- Nature Restoration Fund for offshore wind marine mitigation
- “First ready, first connected” for grid connections
- Long-Duration Energy Storage cap-and-floor scheme mandated
- Onshore wind brought into NSIP regime
Outcomes claimed
- clean-power-2030-outcome — 95% clean electricity by 2030
- economic-growth-gdp — Clean energy as growth sector (IS-8)
- uk-net-zero-2050 — Clean power is enabling condition for net zero pathway
Contributing actions → outputs → outcomes logic
| Action | Output | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Grid connection reform | Cleared 739GW queue; 80 priority projects connected | System capacity for clean generation |
| CfD auction reform | Increased renewable project viability | Offshore/onshore wind, solar deployed at scale |
| Planning reform (PIA 2025) | Faster NSIP consenting | Energy infrastructure built within 2030 window |
| Office for Clean Energy Jobs | Skilled workforce | Delivery capacity for installation and maintenance |
| National Wealth Fund | Private co-investment in ports, hydrogen, CCUS | Industrial base for clean energy |
Assumptions and risks
- Grid delivery: Requires approximately twice the transmission infrastructure built in the past decade, delivered by 2030. Network infrastructure has long lead times — this is the single highest-risk delivery constraint.
- Workforce: Skills Annex acknowledges significant recruitment difficulties and geographic mismatches. Long training pipelines for engineers mean 2030 delivery depends on training started now.
- Planning timelines: Pre-application timelines were 27 months in 2021. Planning and Infrastructure Act (Dec 2025) is the fix, but it is early-stage implementation.
- Nuclear decline: Ageing fleet means nuclear capacity falls from 5.9 to 3–4 GW by 2030. Sizewell C (£14.2bn committed) will not contribute before 2030.
- Measurement: DESNZ official statistics tracking three metrics (generation share, demand met, emissions intensity). Baseline and trajectory data available from 2025.
Tensions flagged
- clean-power-marine-environment — Offshore wind expansion (to 50 GW) directly conflicts with Marine Protected Area obligations; Marine Recovery Fund and OWEIP are mitigations, not resolutions
- skills-shortage-cross-sector — Construction and engineering workers needed across clean power, defence, and housing simultaneously
- planning-timelines-2030-targets — 2030 is 6 years from planning baseline; transmission infrastructure with 27-month pre-app timelines is extremely tight
- housing-biodiversity — Nature Restoration Fund (via PIA 2025) is needed for both housing and energy — prioritisation under one mechanism not yet clear
Source files
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