Britain’s electricity system is “highly resilient”, energy minister Michael Shanks has said in a bid to reassure MPs following Spain and Portugal’s widespread blackouts. Power has largely been restored across the Iberian Peninsula, but not before the outage grounded flights, paralysed train systems and disrupted mobile communication. Speaking in the Commons, Mr Shanks said the UK had not been affected by the power cuts but the Government continues to prepare for “all eventualities”. In a statement on energy grid resilience, he said: “I would like to reassure the House that Great Britain has a highly resilient energy network, and the incident in Iberia has not impacted Great Britain. “The Secretary of State has been in regular contact with the National Energy System Operator, the Neso, over the past two days, and they have provided reassurance that there is no increase in risk to our energy supplies or system stability from this incident.” Mr Shanks added: “An event similar in impact to this incident in Great Britain would be the equivalent of a national power outage, which is the total loss of power across the whole of GB. This risk is listed on the national risk register as a high-impact but low-likelihood event.” He said the Government is prepared “for all eventualities no matter how unlikely”, adding: “This includes having robust emergency plans, summarised in the national emergency plan for downstream gas and electricity, and regularly exercising emergency plans with the energy industry and Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets).” Shadow energy minister Andrew Bowie said: “We cannot get away from the fact that this Government’s plans to rush ahead to build a grid that is entirely dependent on the wind and the sun, in just five years’ time, makes our electricity grid significantly less reliable.” He added: “Data from

Nature charities are urging the Scottish Government to refuse consent for one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, warning it could kill and displace tens of thousands of seabirds. They warn the Berwick Bank wind farm would be “catastrophic” for Scotland’s seabirds and call for developments in more “appropriate” locations. Berwick Bank would have up to 307 turbines located in the outer Firth of Forth, around 40km off the Scottish coast near seabird sites like Bass Rock, St Abb’s Head and the Isle of May – which is home to puffins. RSPB Scotland, the Marine Conservation Society, National Trust for Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust and Scottish Seabird Centre have united to call for the development to be refused and have written to Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney. SSE Renewables said it has amended the development designs to reduce, as much as practical, any potential risks to Scottish seabirds. Anne McCall, director of RSPB Scotland, said: “Offshore wind has a key role in tackling the climate and nature emergency. We fully support well-sited wind farms which work with nature. But they are being held back by a major spanner in the works. “Berwick Bank would be catastrophic for Scotland’s globally important seabirds. Its impacts are so damaging it is blocking plans for new, less-harmful wind farms. © PAUndated RSPB Scotland handout photo of two kittiwakes. “As the First Minister said earlier this year, nature should be at the heart of climate action. Our message to the Scottish Government is clear: Refuse Berwick Bank to unlock the full potential of offshore wind while protecting our outstanding wildlife.” The charities claim new offshore wind developments are being held back due to their combined impacts with Berwick Bank on Scotland’s seabird populations, and suggest refusing it could open up opportunities for other such

Teesside can set an example for the rest of the world with its innovative carbon capture plans – while also creating thousands of jobs – the Managing Director of Net Zero Teesside Power (NZTP) has said. Talking to Energy Voice at the Innovation Zero conference, Ian Hunter heralded plans to build the planet’s first major gas-fired power station with carbon capture. Some 742MW of “low carbon flexible power” will be provided, he explained. NZTP is working closely with East Coast Cluster and the Northern Endurance Partnership on the project, which will involve transporting CO2 and storing it “permanently and safely” deep off the North Sea. Mr Hunter said the proposals had been drawn up amid “global agreement” around the need for a “massive amount” of CCS in the future. “This is exciting as it would be the first gas-fired power station in the world with this technology,” he continued. “It is really important for the UK…we need a power source that can meet our energy demands when it is not windy or sunny. “We want to take flexible energy and decarbonise it.” An international blueprint for scale © Supplied by EquinorThe Northern Endurance Partnership CCS project is being developed in Teesside. Mr Hunter said the “real beauty” of the scheme was that, if successful, it could be copied globally. NZTP hope to have the project up and running by 2028. “This is really happening,” he said. “Contracts are all signed, we are now in the execution phase. “The UK is really trying to develop a system where big projects get on line and smaller projects tie in later. “That is how you achieve scale and variety in your carbon capture.” E-FWD Analysis: “Just get moving” on Tees Valley’s path to energy leadership Describing the scheme as important on a national

Dive Brief: Global solar companies’ total corporate funding, including venture capital, public market and debt financing,  declined 41% year over year during the first quarter of 2025, while energy storage companies’ funding fell 81%, according to Mercom Capital Group, a consulting firm. Uncertainty — primarily around the fate of the Inflation Reduction Act and renewable energy tax credits, but also around tariffs and supply chain concerns — has prevented many financing deals from moving forward because the negotiating parties can’t reliably calculate potential returns, said Raj Prabhu, CEO and co-founder of Mercom Capital Group. If Congress does not soon signal a consensus on the IRA’s fate, the renewable energy industry could end up snared in something like a sector-specific recession “in the sense that activity is going to stall because of the uncertainty,” Prabhu said. Dive Insight: Funding for solar, energy storage and smart grid companies plummeted essentially across the board during the first quarter of 2025 — an outcome Prabhu described as expected following the election of President Donald Trump, but one that could be concerning should the trend continue long term. Prabhu said investor interest in renewable energy had begun to cool even before the election in November in conjunction with Trump’s then-growing popularity. But the slump isn’t related as much to Trump’s specific positions, Prabhu said, as it is to the overall lack of certainty about how key elements of U.S. energy policy will ultimately fare. “Mergers and acquisitions can still happen, but financing is a whole other deal right now,” given that investors and developers don’t know what it will cost to import their equipment and how much they can expect to receive in tax credits, Prabhu said. “Yes, some venture capital deals can happen if you have a company with something really innovative. But beside the sure-fire

Dive Brief: The U.S. energy storage industry will invest $100 billion over the next five years to build and buy batteries made in the United States, the American Clean Power Association and company representatives said Tuesday. The announcement adds about $85 billion to a set of “active investments” worth $10 billion to $15 billion, executives with the trade group said in a press briefing. The commitment “represents a clear pathway to supplying 100% of U.S. energy storage projects with American-made batteries by 2030,” but depends on a “streamlined permitting environment” and predictable tax and trade policy, ACP said. Dive Insight: In 2018, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 841 freed energy storage resources to participate in wholesale markets operated by regional transmission organizations and independent system operators. Stationary storage deployment has grown more than 25-fold since then, ACP said. More recently, surging electric vehicle adoption, particularly in China, and improved lithium-ion battery economics have helped drive average levelized energy costs for wind and solar installations firmed with batteries below the cheapest thermal alternatives. The stationary storage industry’s fortunes improved further with the August 2022 enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act, which included billions in federal tax credits for clean energy manufacturing, deployment and generation. U.S. energy storage supply chain companies now have 25 factories in development, 11 of which are under construction or operational, according to the ACP fact sheet. These manufacturing investments include a new Tesla refinery near Corpus Christi, Texas, and an expanded manufacturing footprint at its Megapack factory near Reno, Nevada; multiple Fluence plants in the southern and western U.S.; and the West Virginia factory where Form Energy is commercializing iron-air batteries that can discharge continuously for four days. COVID-era disruptions across the global battery supply chain convinced Fluence that an energy storage market as robust as the

Clean energy manufacturers canceled, closed or downsized nearly $8 billion in projects in the first quarter of 2025, as the Trump administration’s rollback of support for the sector sets in. Clean energy advocacy nonprofit E2 announced the cancellations earlier this month as part of its monthly tracking of clean energy project announcements in the U.S. It was the first time E2 has opted to include cancellations and downsizes as part of its tracking, as the number of abandoned projects grows across the U.S.  Cancellations included lithium battery maker Kore Power’s cancellation of its planned $1.2 billion factory in Arizona, as well as Freyr Battery’s cancellation of its $2.6 billion Georgia battery factory.  The cancellations, which spanned 16 projects in sectors such as wind, solar and electric vehicle manufacturing, are another sign of companies’ hesitation to push ahead with clean energy projects in the era of the Trump administration.  In the years following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, manufacturers poured hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy projects in a bid to cash in on the law’s lucrative tax credits for domestic manufacturing, as well as its direct funding and loan financing.  Now, however, times have changed. On his first day in office, President Donald Trump froze IRA funding pending a federal review. Last week, a federal judge ordered the funding temporarily reinstated while a lawsuit from six climate groups is under consideration.  Trump has been critical of the climate law and what he calls former President Joe Biden’s “electric vehicle mandate,” referring to Biden’s 2021 executive order that called for half of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030. The president has also criticized EV tax credits provided under the IRA.  Further compounding this issue are the Trump administration’s tariffs, which could