Last week, Great British Energy (GBE) announced a landmark initiative to strengthen the UK’s clean energy industry and secure long-term economic growth.

GBE, which was launched in October 2024 with £8.3bn in new government investment, will mobilise £1 billion to fund the Energy Engineered in the UK (EEUK) programme. The initiative is a key part of the UK Government’s modern Industrial Strategy, which sets out a ten-year plan to boost investment, create good, skilled jobs, and make Britain the best place to do business.

As part of the programme, GBE is opening its £300 million GBE Supply Chain Fund: Offshore Wind & Networks, designed to tackle urgent bottlenecks in key components such as blades, turbines, transmission cables and converter stations. A further £700 million will be invested in renewable energy supply chains

GBE will work alongside partners including the National Wealth Fund, Scottish National Infrastructure Bank, and The Crown Estate to unlock financing for large-scale manufacturing projects.

To cement the UK’s position as a global leader in deepwater offshore wind, GBE is also establishing a Deepwater Wind Commercialisation Programme in partnership with FLOWEX, bringing together industry leaders to unlock the industrial opportunity from the next frontier of offshore wind deployment. Specifically, this initiative will shape commercialisation pathways, reduce technology costs, kickstart supply chain investment and establish the UK as a global leader in deepwater offshore wind.

Great British Energy CEO, Dan McGrail, said, “Great British Energy is investing in British industry, we are helping to create jobs, driving innovation, and ensuring clean energy infrastructure is built here in the UK. This programme is about more than funding; it will help overcome the current challenges and ensure the benefits of a world-class supply chain are felt in communities across the country.”

Rob Gilbert, Great British Energy Director of Supply Chains, said, “Energy, Engineered in the UK is a national initiative to drive down technology costs, crowd in private finance, and use our unique role between the public and private sector to support structured market interventions. This programme will help the UK energy sector to learn collectively, scale deliberately, and compete globally – not just on cost, but on homegrown, long-term capability. This will create jobs, economic growth, and energy security for all areas of the UK.”

As reported by the IEA in 2024, the British government has ambitions to fully decarbonise the power sector by 2035 (subject to security of supply), deploy up to 50 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030, increase solar capacity by 70 GW by 2035, and realise up to 24 GW of nuclear power by 2050.