Britain should embrace Chinese renewable energy tech

Britain should make more use of Chinese renewable energy technology, said Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy’s power generation arm, on the eve of Keir Starmer’s visit last week to the People’s Republic. That could cut windfarm development costs by one-third, she said, keeping energy bills down. The firm, now the largest provider of electricity to British households, wants to use wind turbines from China in its new projects from September.

Critics, including the US president, warn of the dangers, of relying on Chinese energy technology. That is a real issue, though surely less so for physical infrastructure of this kind. Could Chinese manufacturers really embed a secret kill-switch in wind turbines, allowing them to be turned off remotely by Beijing, as some security experts fear? It seems unlikely. Octopus seems plausible in saying it could develop its own software to manage Chinese hardware, rather than having to rely on Chinese software.

While there are grounds to fear possible human rights abuses by Chinese manufacturers, these could be avoided through diligent supply-chain management.

The longer-term risk of China cutting off hardware supplies, if political relations with the UK or the west more broadly were to deteriorate, is real. But once the infrastructure is in place, this could only have a very gradual impact. Replicating Chinese hardware and spare parts would not be too hard for other manufacturers to do, were China to take that path. Indeed, if India continues its present pace of improvement in the quality and low cost of its clean energy technology sector, increasing Britain’s reliance on China might prove a temporary shift.

In sum, Octopus is surely right. The likely upside to British energy consumers from more thoroughly embracing Chinese renewable energy generation technology far exceeds any credible risks. Britain should do it.

Photograph by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images