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US President Trump is determined to rip up Europe and toss the pieces to Russia, so it was no surprise to hear Energy Secretary Chris Wright pile on to the UK earlier this week, reportedly calling the nation’s hot-paced clean energy plans “lunacy.” Well, consider the source. The fact is that the UK has emerged as a global decarbonization leader thanks in part to their copious offshore wind resources, and they have the receipts to prove it.
For actual lunacy, how about a Commander-in-Chief that tramples over longtime alliances in Europe to curry favor with Russia? If you want a say in the matter, calling your representatives in Congress is a good place to start.
UK Sets Record Pace For Clean Energy Transition
Last spring, the UK energy firm Drax tasked its Electrical Insights team with running nation-by-nation decarbonization numbers. “The country’s carbon emissions have fallen by 52% since their peak in 1971, a more significant drop than any other comparable nation,” they reported. The figure confirms a similar exercise that used 1990, the date of the Kyoto Protocol, that tapped the UK as the first nation in the world to cut emissions by half (for the record, US emissions didn’t peak until 2005, according to the Drax EI team).
Energy Secretary Wright had something to say about that. As reported by Reuters on Monday, he dropped in on a right-wing conference in London by video link and singled out the UK for special attention.
“No one’s going to make an energy-intensive product in the United Kingdom any more. It’s just been displaced somewhere else,” he said. “This is not energy transition. This is lunacy. This is impoverishing your own citizens in a delusion that this is somehow going to make the world a better place.”
Ouch!
More Energy Storage Coming To UK
As if on cue, the UK energy storage startup Invinity Energy Systems came right back in a press release on Tuesday, outlining its plan for peppering the globe with vanadium flow batteries.
Flow batteries are non-flammable and scalable, opening up more clean energy storage opportunities beyond conventional lithium-ion batteries.
Invinity’s plan is supported by a new partnership with the firm Frontier Power Limited, under which Frontier has reserved up to 2 gigawatt-hours worth of flow batteries manufactured by Invinity.
“This collaboration marks a significant step forward in the UK’s clean energy transition, targeting a boost to domestic manufacturing, creating jobs, and positioning the UK as a global leader in advanced energy storage technologies,” Invinity emphasized.
“Invinity’s vanadium flow batteries are Made in Britain at the Company’s factories in Scotland and offer significant advantages over other battery technologies,” they emphasized again, taking particular note of their manufacturing and R&D assets in Scotland.
An Energy Storage Love Letter To The World
Invinity is not limiting its targets to the UK. With Frontier as partner, they anticipate transforming their homeland into a leading global energy storage exporter while also attracting new investments.
“Frontier Power’s active presence in other countries, especially in Asia, provides a platform for expanding this partnership and deploying UK battery technology on a global scale,” Invinity notes.
Invinity also used the opportunity to take a poke at Trump and the whole idea of “American energy dominance.” In contrast to the US, where Trump has single-handedly snuffed out the offshore wind industry, Invinity draws attention to the UK’s clean energy resources.
“Maximising the use of the UK’s own energy resources in the form of wind and solar power is essential to delivering enhanced energy security while also driving down costs for consumers,” the company notes. “By deploying our Made in Britain batteries in partnership with Frontier Power and others across the UK energy industry, we are meeting this challenge head on.”
So Much Winning For Clean Energy
Invinity is not the only one clapping back. On Tuesday, the VisNet branch of the leading UK power management firm EA Technology emailed CleanTechnica with a message that gives short shrift to Wright’s gloomy perspective on the UK economy.
“While some have expressed concern about the projected cost of decarbonising the UK energy network, the benefits are set to supercharge the economy in the long run, aligning with Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s goal of increasing investment and unlocking the potential of UK industry,” VisNet stated.
“With infrastructure projects like The Great Grid Upgrade on the horizon, there’s never been a better time to position the UK as a decarbonisation leader,” added VisNet Commercial Director Mark Sprawson, referring to a plan for integrating more clean energy into the UK grid.
“With 130,000 new jobs projected to be created by new electricity transmission infrastructure and the UK green economy growing by 9% in 2023 (against 0.1% growth in the rest of the economy), there’s a clear economic benefit to the UK in becoming an international decarbonisation leader,” Sprawson added.
Sprawson took extra steps to ensure Wright got the message, describing the UK as “a leading European hub for green technology,” and adding “as we’ve seen with other sectors like financial services, exporting our expertise can be a lucrative economic exercise” for good measure.
“The renewable energy sector is playing a key role in Britain’s economic growth, and positioning ourselves as international leaders is the best way forward if we’re to become a hub for overseas investment,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Here In The US
In addition to choking the offshore wind industry from federal lease areas, Trump issued a blanket ban on wind and solar development on federal lands. His freeze on federal disbursements is also disrupting clean energy projects from one end of the country to another, among other impacts.
Keep an eye on the sprawling network of 900 member-owned local rural electric cooperatives, represented by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
NRECA leadership has enthusiastically welcomed Trump and his appointees, but their welcome note to newly confirmed Agriculture Secretary Brooke Leslie Rollins suggests they are nervous about something.
Apropos of nothing, the brief note devotes a whole paragraph to the Rural Utilities Service of the US Department of Agriculture. RUS “is a source of critical tools and funding that assist electric co-ops in their mission of providing reliable and affordable power to rural communities,” NRECA explains, referring to a Depression-era loan program that began in 1936.
“These loans are issued at no cost to the federal government, and in fiscal year 2023 they netted $218 million to the U.S. Treasury,” NRECA added.
Oh…you don’t say? Nice loan program you got there…
Photo (cropped): The UK energy storage startup Invinity is launching its new flow battery into the global clean energy transition, Trump or no Trump (courtesy of Invinity).
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