Keir Starmer’s Green Energy Gamble Could Leave Britain in the Dark Warn Experts

Keir Starmer has been all-in on green energy lately, making it clear he sees renewables as the key to the UK’s future wealth and security. He’s talked up the transition to net zero, pledged to boost clean power, and backed Britain joining the continent’s carbon market. But critics are now sounding the alarm that this enthusiastic green push could backfire in a big way.

The warning comes after Spain suffered a massive power outage in April, with around 55 million people left without electricity for over half a day. While an exact cause is still being investigated, some energy experts have pointed the finger at Spain’s heavy reliance on renewables. At the time of the blackout, solar and wind were covering about 80% of the country’s electricity needs — a record-high figure for Europe. Now, there’s a growing fear that the UK, by following a similar path too quickly, might be setting itself up for the same kind of failure, reported the Express.

The fallout in Spain has reignited an ongoing debate over the role of nuclear power in a future that’s meant to be carbon-free. At the Almaraz nuclear plant in western Spain, staff had rehearsed what to do in the event of a national blackout. When the real thing happened, the plant performed exactly as planned. “Achieved the perfect stop,” said Borja Hermoso, who works at the site.

Even so, the plant is set to shut down permanently, in line with Spain’s net zero goals — and thousands of jobs will vanish with it. But many now believe that decision was premature, and perhaps reckless.

María Guardiola Martin, president of the Extremadura region and a member of Spain’s conservative People’s Party, was blunt. She called the outage “a strategic and social error not only for Extremadura, but for all of Spain,” blaming it on the rapid phase-out of nuclear power in favour of wind and solar.

Engineer Izaskun García, who also works at the Almaraz plant, told The Telegraph that the blackout proved the grid “is not ready to run only with renewables”. She warned, “The transition has been too rapid and the planning insufficient. We need another 10–15 years to work out how to use only renewables and in the meantime, we cannot do without nuclear energy.”

With Starmer pushing the UK down a similar track, there are now questions over whether enough has been done to safeguard against the risks. Last year, the Labour government introduced several ambitious bills tied to the net zero plan. That included the Great British Energy Bill, which promises to set up a publicly owned clean power company. Then there’s the Crown Estate Bill, aimed at clearing red tape so more money can flow into public infrastructure. And the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill was designed to kick-start the production of eco-friendly jet fuel.

But Spain’s experience has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works. If one of Europe’s greenest countries can be plunged into darkness by an overdependence on renewables, it raises a serious question — could Britain be next?

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