Why Wales could be the next energy powerhouse

By Stuart George, CEO of Green GEN Cymru

Every time oil and gas prices surge, the cost lands on our doorsteps: in household bills, manufacturing costs, and government budgets thinned overnight. The recent surge, driven by tensions between the US and Iran, is just the latest reminder of how exposed we remain to energy markets that others control.

Oil prices have risen by over 50% since the start of March, with global forecasts expecting further increases. Each shock triggers the same reaction: repeated calls for investment in renewables, followed by slow progress once prices stabilise due to short-term political solutions.

But in Wales, the transition to a more energy-secure future is already well underway, making the most of its natural resources.

In 2024, Wales generated enough renewable power to meet 54% of the country’s electricity use. Just this month, it launched an even more ambitious new deal, recommitting to generating 70% of its electricity by 2030 and 100% by 2035, working in partnership with the private sector to help deliver much of this ambition.

Wales’s unique landscape will drive this progress. Its mountains, coastlines and open land make it ideal for onshore and offshore wind, hydropower, and emerging tidal technologies, helping to reduce dependence on imported oil and gas. The latter still meets roughly 90% of Wales’s total energy demand.

However, natural advantage alone does not create a sustainable energy system capable of powering an entire nation. What matters is transferring this energy from wind farms to the Welsh businesses, homes and schools that need it.

Renewable energy can be produced in abundance in Wales, but without the infrastructure to transport it efficiently across the country, much of that potential will be wasted.

This is where Green GEN Cymru comes in. The business is tackling the most critical part of the green transition: energy distribution. It captures renewable energy generated in rural, wind-swept Wales and transports it to the communities that need it by building resilient grid infrastructure across the country. These carefully engineered energy pathways not only reduce pressure on the existing electricity grid but also enable the future rollout of green heating and electric vehicles.

Grid infrastructure is currently a major bottleneck for Wales’s 2035 target of 100% renewable electricity, as well as meeting its wider legally binding decarbonisation goals. The real risk now is underinvestment in these critical systems. Green GEN Cymru has joined the Net Zero All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) to offer its expertise for the UK’s clean energy mission, but this alone will not be enough. Without serious investment in grid and other low-carbon energy infrastructure (such as carbon capture and storage and hydrogen), we will remain vulnerable when the next oil crisis arrives.

The Middle East became the international energy powerhouse we rely on today largely through geography. Wales now has a similar opportunity: to build a more secure and independent economy through the decisions made today — through infrastructure, investment, collaboration and intent.

Wales’s success in this area would also be a success story for democracies across the globe. It could offer a model for smaller nations to drive the transition to a more energy-secure future by building systems that deliver control and independence, rather than remaining at the whim of decisions made thousands of miles away in an increasingly unstable world.

Ben Burggraaf, CEO of Net Zero Industry Wales, comments:

“Wales has the potential to become a UK-leading clean energy transition hub, while remaining a cornerstone of the UK industrial base, producing high-value goods and services. To fulfil this potential and secure the necessary investment, it needs home-grown, affordable energy, as well as faster and fairer access to grid capacity so industry can grow and decarbonise — protecting jobs, powering our economy and empowering Wales.”