The Energy Transition | UK government announces jobs plan for clean energy

This week, we look at the UK clean energy surge for job creation, the National Wealth Fund's impact report on financing growth, and the government's approval of the UK's largest solar plant.

Government launches jobs plan for clean energy

The government has published its Clean Energy Jobs Plan setting out how it intends to deliver the skilled workforce required for the UK to achieve its clean energy goals and become "a global leader in clean energy sector talent". 

The plan, which was published on 19 October, details five commitments the government is making to deliver this workforce.

• Setting out workforce expectations, including providing certainty around what the pipeline of work will look like and workforce needs.
• Delivering a pipeline of workers in order to meet demand.
• Making use of the skills people already have as well as ensuring those already in the sector are able to advance and capitalise on new opportunities.
• Ensuring that the jobs created as part of the UK's clean energy goals provide good pay and opportunities for progression.
• Ensuring that opportunities are available across the UK, allowing everyone to benefit.

The jobs plan also details financial investments that will be made. These include investing more than £100 million into the Engineer Skills Package, which will offer a variety of support including £10 million that has been earmarked to fund clean energy engineering courses. Five technical excellence colleges (TECs) for clean energy will be established. The specific aim of these TECs will be to train skilled clean energy workers.

Up to £20 million of funding will be provided to help with the transition of North Sea workers into the clean energy sector. The plan will also deliver up to  £2.5 million of funding specifically for regional skills interventions in Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Pembrokeshire to support those looking to move across to the clean energy sector. The government has also committed to providing £1.2 billion of investment in skills for young people by 2028-2029.

The Office for Clean Energy Jobs, which was set up in July 2024, will continue to work across the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to coordinate with  industry, trade unions and education providers to create high-quality, well-paid jobs across the UK, drive regional development and ensure a "just" and "fair" transition to  net zero.

The UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband , stated: "Our plans will help create an economy in which there is no need to leave your hometown just to find a decent job. Thanks to this government’s commitment to clean energy, a generation of young people in our industrial heartlands can have well-paid, secure jobs, from plumbers to electricians and welders." 

UK government revises Planning and Infrastructure Bill to boost onshore wind development

The UK government has introduced amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to target faster delivery of clean energy and infrastructure projects. The amendments focus on onshore wind projects, with the government stating that, if passed, the proposals will unlock 3 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind capacity and an additional £2 billion in investment.

The proposed changes to the bill include new ministerial "holding directions" to prevent local councils rejecting planning permission applications while they consider using their "call in" powers. It also proposes streamlining the role of Natural England in planning decisions.

Ana Musat, Renewable UK’s director of policy and engagement, said: “Onshore wind is one of the quickest and cheapest technologies to build and we welcome these proposals to ensure we can fully capitalise on this through a more efficient planning process, potentially enabling up to 3GW of capacity and £2 billion in additional investment for local businesses."

The bill returned to the House of Lords for its report stage on 20 October.

National Wealth Fund publishes impact report on financing growth

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) has issued its 2025 impact report on financing growth detailing how it has deployed its capital over the past year and how this aligns with the energy transition goals that it is set up to support. Since its evolution from the UK Infrastructure Bank in October 2024, the NWF has invested £3.6 billion across 22 projects throughout the UK.

The report highlights the spread of innovative clean technologies that the NWF has invested in since its inception, stating that this approach is designed to reduce the financial risks associated with scaling technologies, while attracting and stimulating private sector capital to 'crowd-in'. For instance, a £50 million investment in AMP Clean Energy focuses on deploying flexible battery-storage solutions to strengthen local energy networks and support the decarbonisation of industry, aligning with the government's target to more than quintuple the existing battery storage capacity by 2030. 

Other notable projects supported by the NWF include the 1.4 GW interconnector between the UK and Germany, a 14 MW "green" hydrogen production facility (one of the UK's largest) and the Sizewell C nuclear plant, which received a £36.6 billion loan from the NWF.

In addition to GW-scale projects, the report highlights the geographical breadth of the projects supported by the NWF and states the fund's commitment to supporting local and mayoral authorities to attract and realise investment in their areas. On a local scale, this has included funding allocated to support the development of over 34,000 public charging points for electric vehicles. It also includes NWF funding to retrofit up to 280,000 homes within social housing developments, on which we previously reported here.

Sheer Khan, chief impact officer at the NWF, underlined in the report the intention for the fund to continue to increase its impact. He said that the NWF, in the years ahead, will "help more sectors secure the financing they need to realise their full potential, deploying new products into the market and continuing to build [its] influence in locations across the UK to unlock wider benefits".

Government approves UK's largest solar plant to power over 7.5m homes  

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has announced that the government has approved the Tillbridge Solar Farm, which, when operational, will become the UK's largest solar plant with a connection capacity of 500 MW.

The project is a joint development between Tribus Clean Energy and Recurrent Energy. It has received its planning consent, by way of development consent order (DCO), as a nationally significant infrastructure project.

DCOs are granted by DESNZ for solar projects with an installed capacity of 50MW or more. The government, in its press release announcing the consent, noted that this is the 17^th clean energy project it has approved under the regime since July 2024.

The UK energy minister, Michael Shanks, highlighted the importance the government places on new solar developments: "Solar is one of the cheapest and quickest power sources we can build, it is crucial in our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower – giving us energy security, good jobs and growth across the country."

This article was written with the assistance of Oliver Derham, Yasmine Jauffur, trainee solicitors, and Tomisin Agbonifo, paralegal