Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (centre) visits Hutchinson Engineering in Widnes, north of England, on Thursday. — AFP LONDON, July 25 (Reuters): Britain's new Labour government launched its flagship green energy infrastructure plan on Tuesday, announcing a multi-billion-pound partnership with the business arm of the royal family to develop offshore wind farms.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is establishing a publicly owned body called Great British Energy to spearhead funding in domestic renewable energy projects as the UK weans itself off fossil fuels.
"There is a massive prize within our reach, and make no mistake the race is on to get there," Starmer said of his pledge to ensure Britain's energy "independence".
His government has allocated £8.3 billion ($10 billion) of public money over the next five years as Labour aims to meet Britain's climate change targets.
It also wants to bring down the price of energy by reducing reliance on foreign imports of oil and gas.
GB Energy will also seek to attract private investment, and the government announced a first tie-up with the monarchy's land and property holdings company that aims to leverage private investment of £60 billion.
The Crown Estate is an independently run business whose profits go to the government, which passes on a small portion to the monarchy to support official duties of the royal family.
It is one of Europe's biggest property empires, owning vast swathes of Britain's seabed with a huge commercial potential in developing offshore wind power generation.
The Crown Estate estimates that its GB Energy partnership will lease enough offshore land to produce up to 30 gigawatts of new energy, enough to power almost 20 million homes, by 2030.
The UK currently produces only 14 gigawatts of energy through offshore wind, according to government data.
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