Sir John Armitt, chair of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission, has told Chancellor Jeremy Hunt that Whitehall is taking "too long" in deciding how to best support private investment for decarbonisation of the electricity sector, reports the Financial Times.
The publication said it has seen a letter in which Armitt also calls for "greater urgency" on developing areas where hydrogen can be scored at scale.
The letter, which was sent to both Hunt and Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho, said: “Government needs to move faster to ensure that the necessary infrastructure can be delivered over the next decade.”
Armitt claimed ministers have taken too long to initiate mechanisms to support the decarbonisation of gas-fired power stations.
“To meet the needs of the power sector, we should be deploying hydrogen and gas CCS [carbon capture and storage] generation at a pace equivalent to the ‘dash for gas’,” Armitt said in his letter.
NIC: UK government is taking “too long” to decarbonise electricity sector
