Upgrading the grid risks ending up like HS2 Opinion Upgrading the UK's electricity grid is a vastly complex project. I hope the government's learned from HS2, writes John Lazar.
Data centres to consume tenth of global power by 2050 AI The AI boom is set to drive one of the largest increases in electricity demand in modern history, with data centres expected to consume a tenth of the world’s power by 2050. Global data centre electricity demand will more than double from 500 terawatt-hours (TWh) last year to 1,114TWh by mid-century, according to BloombergNEF data, [...]
The City is paying the price for Britain’s energy failure Opinion High, unstable energy costs don’t stay in the energy sector. They get absorbed into operating margins, debt-service forecasts, insurance assumptions, infrastructure returns, and the discount rate applied to British assets, says Alan Chang The City does not need another price shock to understand Britain’s energy problem. Markets are already pricing the risk. Renewed tensions with [...]
Shadow energy secretary: Reeves’ subsidies mean nothing without tax cuts April 17, 2026 It is the cost of systems, not electricity, that is driving up businesses' energy bills, writes shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho.
London’s £10bn data centre boom accelerates amid AI power crunch November 7, 2025 London’s data centre sector is entering a new phase of expansion, with three major schemes worth over £10bn revealed in the past week. The projects, all located in and around the capital, aim to serve the growing computing needs of the City, tech firms, and the broader UK economy, particularly AI workloads. The developments are [...]
Tony Blair calls on Labour to ditch key net zero target October 23, 2025 Tony Blair’s think tank has called for the government to ditch its 2030 clean power target as it urged the Labour government to focus on making electricity cheaper in order to persuade Brits to use it over gas. In a report published by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), researchers called for the government to “solve” [...]
Ministers set to cut industrial energy prices for British manufacturers June 20, 2025 The government plans to slash industrial energy prices for British manufacturers, enabling them to better compete with key European rivals. Ministers will unveil a multibillion pound package of taxpayer-funded support for the UK’s most energy intensive industries, as part of the government’s industrial strategy on Monday, according to reports. Proposals to make energy prices more [...]
Heathrow warned about power supply days before outage closure, MPs told April 2, 2025 Heathrow Airport was warned about its power supply in the days before it closed because of an outage, MPs were told. Nigel Wicking, chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators Committee, which represents airlines that use the west London airport, said there were a “couple of incidents” which made him concerned. The airport was closed to [...]
Ofgem to fast-track £4bn investment in UK electricity grid March 20, 2025 Ofgem has announced plans to fast-track around £4bn of investment into expanding the UK’s electricity transmission network as it looks to decarbonise the grid by 2030. The Advanced Procurement Mechanism (APM) will enable signed-off projects to “break ground as soon as planning approval is granted,” the energy regulator said in a statement on Thursday. It [...]
Plans for £1bn battery gigafactory and over 1,000 new jobs revealed February 26, 2025 Plans to create a £1bn 10GWh battery gigafactory in Coventry which will create over 1,000 jobs by 2030 have been revealed. Volklec, a battery manufacturing start-up which set up shop in the West Midlands city last year, has entered into an exclusive license agreement with China-based Far East Battery (FEB). The deal will see Volklec [...]