Institution's response to the Labour Party’s new energy plan

Matt Rooney, Engineering Policy Adviser at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, comments on the Labour Party’s new energy plan.

"Labour’s new energy plan sets ambitious targets for faster decarbonisation, with a target of 85% electricity coming from low-carbon technologies like wind, solar and nuclear by 2030. Such ambition is to be commended. The focus on energy efficiency, which is widely regarded to be an area in which the country has fallen short, is also timely. 

However, the policy of mandating solar on ‘every viable rooftop’ is misguided. This is an expensive way of generating electricity from solar energy. It would be more efficient, and less expensive, to direct the same resources towards dedicated solar farms that can be more readily optimised to produce electricity and that will not require expensive installation costs associated with rooftop solar. 

The cost of solar panels has fallen rapidly in recent years, to the point that solar power can compete on cost with convention fossil fuel power plants. Whichever party is in Government should enable the roll-out of more solar capacity, but it would be a mistake to enforce an unnecessarily expensive method of production when cheaper alternatives are available"

Notes to Editors

• Contact the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Press Office on 020 7973 1261 or email media@imeche.org

• The Institution of Mechanical Engineers was established in 1847 and has some of the world’s greatest engineers in its history books. It is one of the fastest growing professional engineering institutions. Headquartered in London, we have operations around the world and over 120,000 members in more than 140 countries working at the heart of the most important and dynamic industries such as the automotive, rail, aerospace, medical, power and construction industries.