The chief executive of GB Energy has admitted the public is largely unaware of the taxpayer-funded body’s role – despite it being one of Labour’s flagship election pledges.
Dan McGrail, who was appointed on a £350,000 salary to run the new state-backed company, told industry leaders at a dinner: “The most popular question that I get asked is, ‘So what is GB Energy?’” He added: “That is both a challenge and my opportunity to create some shape for this,” reports The Telegraph, quoting remarks first revealed by Energy Voice.
The comment is likely to cause embarrassment for Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who positioned GB Energy as Britain’s answer to European giants like France’s EDF, Norway’s Equinor and Denmark’s Ørsted – all of which own significant stakes in UK energy assets.
According to the Telegraph, companies like these already own nearly half of the UK’s offshore wind capacity.
GB Energy has been allocated £8.3bn in funding, though that figure pales in comparison to the balance sheets of its European counterparts. Its only confirmed project so far is a £200m programme to install rooftop solar panels on schools and hospitals.
The criticism was swift.
Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said: “Ed Miliband is spending an astonishing amount of taxpayers’ money on an energy company that won’t even produce any energy.”
Reform UK’s energy spokesman Richard Tice went further: “It should be scrapped along with net zero. That’s the only way to bring bills down and lower the cost of living,” he told the Telegraph.
Mr McGrail defended the organisation’s strategy, saying GB Energy would publish its full investment plan in October.
He said: “We will be precise and clear about how we intend to invest in projects and in supply chains and what we will be prioritising with the budget we have been allocated.”
He described GB Energy’s role as that of a catalyst to spur private sector investment into the low-carbon supply chain: “Since we have started up, we have been in conversation with over 50 gigawatts of projects that have approached us.”
A spokesman for GB Energy said: “These cherry-picked claims ignore the full context of Dan McGrail’s remarks. According to the latest Public Attitudes Survey, 60% of the British public are aware of GB Energy.”
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero declined to comment.
GB Energy Boss admits no one knows what it is! appeared first on Energy Live News.