From solar panels on schools to a £1 billion offshore-wind supply-chain pledge, Labour’s golden ticket pledge, GB Energy has begun to show signs of life.
It started with headline grabbing moves: Scrapping the onshore windfarm ban, confirming its base in Aberdeen, and securing government funding, but critics argue that, nearly a year after its creation, the government’s flagship clean-power company is still searching for the kind of breakthrough project that would prove its transformative potential and value for money.
The background
Great British Energy (GBE) was set up under the Great British Energy Act 2025, with an £8.3 billion budget and a promise to deliver up to 8 GW of new generation by 2030.
Headquartered in Aberdeen, with hubs in Edinburgh and Glasgow, it forms the cornerstone of the government’s pledge to make Britain a “clean energy superpower” while spreading investment across the UK, beyond London and the South East.
However, the project has faced hurdles, like the Spending Review which diverted £2.5 billion of GBE’s capital to small modular nuclear reactors, leaving just over £6 billion for its core renewables mission. Ministers insist private capital will be sourced to fill the gap; sceptics see a flagship weakened before it’s had a chance to shine.
Early progress: Solar and local growth
GB Energy can already point to a number of tangible wins that have gone under the radar.
Rooftop solar on around 200 schools and 200 hospitals, with the first panels installed by June 2025 are predicted to save £25,000 per school and £45,000 per hospital each year, and another £10 million fund for community facilities such as libraries, fire stations and care homes, are already helping to support local councils and health boards struggling with strained budgets.
Missing the big win
Yet these are still incremental steps, not the transformational projects many expected. Three challenges stand out.
Funding dilution: With part of its budget redirected to nuclear, GB Energy must prove it can stretch the remaining capital far enough to shift the dial.
Slow job creation: Initial promises of thousands of roles have so far translated to a plan for 200–300 jobs in Aberdeen over five years, with a total of 1,000 spread over two decades.
Administrative drag: Even Ministers admit Whitehall inertia is slowing project pipelines, from grid connections to planning consent.
What’s next?
For GB Energy to graduate from small wins to a big-ticket victory, it has to turn its promises into shovels in, and boots on the ground while ensuring its now weakened budget is spent effectively to deliver its five key pledges for renewable energy and job creation.
Final Thought
GB Energy has shown it can make an immediate difference to schools, hospitals and local facilities. But without significant progress towards a headline goal, it risks being remembered for tinkering at the edges.
The government needs GB Energy to prove that its model of public-led, locally rooted clean power can deliver at national scale. Until then, Britain’s state-backed energy champion remains a work in progress: Visible, useful, but still waiting for its defining victory.
Featured image via DESNZ.
