Blog by – Claire Tindle, Energy Offtake Manager
Those of us working in energy, and particularly the energy transition, sometimes forget to ask a pretty fundamental question: Why are we doing this at all? It’s a question I’m not sure has been answered clearly enough in UK public debate.
It’s also one I’ve been asked by relatives a few times now and it has made me wonder whether part of the uncertainty and scepticism surrounding the transition is simply that we haven’t made the case clearly enough for why we need to change and why now.
We have talked about climate change, energy security, prices, jobs and investment, net zero, energy independence and resilience. All are important. But the emphasis has shifted over time; and perhaps the result is that the bigger, unifying reason for change has never really landed.
This week’s UK Government decision on the Jackdaw gas field brings many of these considerations into sharp focus. The decision to allow production at an existing North Sea gas development, alongside plans to reinvest oil and gas revenues into the energy transition, reflects the challenge of meeting our energy needs today while investing in a fundamentally different system for tomorrow.
It also illustrates why this isn’t a straightforward debate about choosing one energy source over another. We need to consider how the different parts of our energy system work together, both during the transition and in the decades ahead.
If you are unconvinced by the transition, it is not difficult to see the questions that follow: Why change a system that still supplies our homes and businesses? Why do something that costs so much? And what are we trying to achieve?
Perhaps the simplest answer, and the one I use when explaining it, is that the foundations of the energy system are changing.
UK oil and gas production is declining. Oil and gas has been enormously important to our economy and energy system and will continue to play a role, but they are finite resources and cannot provide the same foundation indefinitely.
That doesn’t mean they’re unimportant today. It means we need to think ahead, while we still have the time, capability and infrastructure to shape what comes next. And that future system needs to deliver more than one thing: security and resilience, reliable and affordable energy, lower emissions, industrial competitiveness and new economic opportunity.
”For me, this discourse is perhaps the more fundamental reason for transition. Not that one driver has suddenly become more important, but that the circumstances around our energy system are changing."
So just how difficult is it to do?
Britain has undertaken major energy-system transformations before. One of the clearest examples is the conversion from town gas to North Sea natural gas during the late 1960s and 1970s.
Between 1967 and 1977, around 13 million homes, 80,000 commercial and industrial consumers and 35 million appliances were converted. New offshore production was connected to the country through new pipelines and infrastructure, while the system that people relied on was progressively changed underneath them.
North Sea oil production began in 1975, and by the early 1980s the UK had become a net energy exporter. The North Sea didn’t just provide energy. It created investment, industrial capability, supply chains and significant government revenues – an economic tailwind alongside the physical transformation of the energy system.
So we have rebuilt parts of the energy system before. And it was also a challenging transformation.
So why does it feel so different this time?
I think much of the difference comes down to the circumstances in which we are having to make the change. Imagine a home that you’ve lived in for decades. The roof needs replacing. The windows are coming to the end of their life. Perhaps the wiring and heating need attention too.
Now imagine having to do all of that while your income is growing much more slowly than it once did. This is, in some ways, the challenge we face.
We have to invest in new generation, networks, storage, flexibility and industrial infrastructure while the existing system still has to keep the lights on, heat homes and support industry. We are effectively renovating the house while still living in it, but without the same financial tailwind that accompanied the last major transformation.
And unlike the transition to North Sea gas, this time we must also consider the need to reduce emissions across the entire energy system. So, the transition is necessary, but it is also difficult. We shouldn’t confuse difficult with optional.
The UK Energy Transition – compared to the challenges of renovating a family home, while still living in the house.
What else can we achieve while we renovate?
The challenge is not simply to replace one energy source with another. It is to evolve an energy system that is becoming less dependent on the oil and gas resources around which much of it was built, while keeping energy secure and affordable and creating the foundations for the economy of the future. But with this scale of change, there is also an opportunity.
If we are replacing the roof, perhaps we improve the insulation. If we are replacing the windows, perhaps we rethink how we heat the house. If we are rewiring it, perhaps we ask whether the whole electrical system could work better.
The same thinking should apply to the energy transition.
Could we build greater resilience and optionality? Better infrastructure? More competitive industry? New energy-intensive industries? Better use of domestic resources and existing infrastructure? More value from the interaction between electrons and molecules?
At Flotation Energy, these are questions that have direct relevance to the projects we are developing. Our Green Volt floating offshore wind project, for example, is looking to help facilitate the provision of renewable electricity to existing North Sea oil and gas installations, replacing power currently generated by gas and diesel turbines, while also supplying electricity to the UK grid.
It is an example of how technologies often discussed separately can work together to support a changing energy system. We can reduce emissions from existing industrial operations while developing new renewable generation, drawing on the considerable offshore engineering expertise, infrastructure and supply chain capabilities already established in the UK.
And looking further ahead, floating offshore wind has the potential to unlock renewable energy resources in deeper waters, creating opportunities for new industries and investment while building on the skills and experience of our existing offshore workforce.
Of course, the development of these projects comes with its own challenges, from infrastructure and grid connections to investment, cost and the pace at which new technologies can be deployed. These are not insignificant obstacles. But they reinforce the importance of thinking about the transition as a whole system rather than a collection of individual projects.
Perhaps the real opportunity is to make the entire energy system work better, rather than simply replacing its individual components.
Building a resilient UK energy system
The debate about the energy transition can too easily become a discussion about individual technologies, individual fuels or individual policies. The Jackdaw decision is a reminder of just how complex those discussions can be. The UK still needs gas, North Sea production is declining, and investment in lower-carbon energy and the infrastructure to support it must continue. These aren’t necessarily competing realities. They are challenges that need to be managed together, with difficult choices and trade-offs along the way.
But the bigger question is what sort of energy system we want for the decades ahead. The system we inherited was built around a different set of resources, technologies, economic circumstances and assumptions about the future. Those circumstances are changing.
That doesn’t mean everything existing needs to disappear, or that there is only one way to build what comes next. It means we have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to decide what we want the system to deliver.
”Working in energy, I see both the scale of that challenge and the expertise we have available to meet it. At Flotation Energy, we are contributing to one part of that transformation through the development of offshore wind, but its success will depend on far more than any one technology, project or company."
If we have to renovate the house anyway, what sort of house do we want when we are finished?
That, perhaps, is the question we should be asking more often. And if we want greater public understanding and support for delivering the transition, we have a responsibility to make the case clearly, not just for individual technologies or projects, but for the outcomes we are trying to achieve and the choices and trade-offs involved.
Because ultimately, the energy transition isn’t simply about changing where our energy comes from. It’s about deciding what kind of energy system, economy and industrial future we want to build.
