The new Labour government in the UK has only been in parliament for a matter of days, after winning the election on the 4th July. Since then, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has made a series of changes which give attention and resources to help rapidly increase solar and wind power. As part of this plan, planning fo three solar farms were approved over the weekend after only being on the job for his first week. The farms are in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Rutland in the east of the UK and will generate 1.35GW of clean energy between them. The farms in question had been blocked by the previous Conservative government.

"I want to unleash a UK solar rooftop revolution. We will encourage builders and homeowners in whatever way we can to deliver this win-win technology to millions of addresses in the UK so people can provide their own electricity, cut their bills and at the same time help fight climate change"

Ed Miliband, UK Energy Secretary

To put it in context, 1.35GW of power between these three farms is around 2/3 the amount of solar installed in the UK in 2023 and will have enough capacity to power 400,000 homes with green energy. It isn't just large scale solar projects that Ed Miliband wants to sort out, it is important to utliise the rooftop space we have in the UK. Miliband will help rewrite planning rules to enable existing homes to have solar installed more easily and also make sure that new build homes come with pre-installed panels.

Just last week, Miliband also lifted restrictions on onshore wind farms, again something that the previous Conservative government had banned for the past 14 years. The new Labour government has plans to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030 in the UK.