Minister McCluskey speech on AI for clean energy vision

8 Sep 2026 03:10 PM

Minister for Local Energy and Jobs Martin McCluskey delivered a speech at the Google for Startups Accelerator: Europe event in London on 8 September.

Good morning everyone,

I want to start by thanking Google for setting up this accelerator programme and bringing all of you together today: you are all incredible companies that are working at the leading edge of AI deployment in our energy system.

From generation to transmission, each shows a tangible pathway from invention to innovation…and ultimately adoption.

And to quote a line from some of the briefing I had on this programme, ‘AI is not just a tool, but a pivotal force in accelerating this essential energy transition’, in Google’s words themselves.

Despite challenges we face today, we cannot rely on yesterday’s thinking.

The electricity grid in the UK used to be managed centrally with a handful of large coal-fired power stations delivering baseload power around highly predictable peaks and troughs.

Fast forward to today and not only has the electricity grid’s carbon intensity dropped, but its complexity has grown dramatically.

In this country, total solar capacity across the UK surpassed 2 million installations for the first time ever in March 2026.

In 2025, the UK had nearly 3,000 fully commissioned offshore wind turbines across 46 wind farms, producing up to 16.5 GW of grid-connected capacity.  

The grid today is managing millions of decentralised energy generating assets from small- to large-scale, and the only way we can handle that generation and demand in real-time is through using AI.

That’s why today matters. This programme is pairing your innovative concepts with the tangible means to make them a reality.

And our people, our communities, are set to benefit.

So I’m grateful to all of you here for choosing to put your ideas forward.

And as the Minister responsible for AI in the energy system, let me spend a minute to talk through some of the areas where we see potential in the UK energy system.

At the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, our number one priority is to make energy more affordable. Not just for consumers and households, but also for businesses.

And we know that AI holds real potential to make this happen.

Its application could transform our energy system for the better.

All the different possible uses I’ve outlined could add up to one incredibly important outcome; a modern, reliable energy grid that gives homes and businesses value for money. 

But the word ‘could’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

Because this hinges on some big questions that need to be addressed.  

Firstly, we need to take seriously the potential risks of introducing more AI into the energy system.

We’re at a point in our history where energy infrastructure is known to be the target of disruption from our adversaries.

That’s not just happening in the UK, it’s happening all over Europe.

So we cannot be introducing risks and vulnerabities into our own system from technology that haven’t been fully explored yet. 

And, second, we need to maintain public consent.

Every technological and industrial revolution has been accompanied by questions about what it means for our society and the way we live.

And that’s right – as politicians we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t ask these questions, and the public has every right to push us to set out where we stand and to ensure we’re acting responsibly.

So we have a duty, as government in this country and other countries across Europe, to be responsible in designing and delivering the infrastructure of the AI revolution…

…and, just as we are seeking to do with our clean energy revolution, taking communities with us and making sure they’re in a position to benefit from playing a part in a generational upgrade.

But let me also say this.

People across the country will not forgive governments that fail to ensure we are equipped for the future.

And AI has a fundamental part to play not just in modernising our energy system, but in allowing our industries to compete globally and in protecting our national security.

These are big questions as the government we’re all grappling with. The technology is evolving fast, and the UK government is leading the effort to keep pace with it, and harness it for the public good.

We are still at the beginning of this journey, and there is so much we will need to learn in the years ahead, but let me tell you about three things we are doing now.

First, today we’re launching our AI for clean energy vision and seeking views on how AI could transform our energy system.

This Vision sets out early thinking on how AI could improve efficiency, cut costs and strengthen energy security.

We want to start a conversation with the public, with industry, with others, where we can start thinking about the big questions that we face…

…including what role government can and should play in this, what AI’s long-term impact will be in our energy system…

…how we acknowledge and mitigate against the risks involved, and how we overcome and identify barriers to adoption.

This thinking, and the early answers to these questions, will shape the foundations of the AI in Energy Strategy we’ll be publishing next year.

Second, we’re publishing an independent review of AI deployment in our electricity networks.

And I want to thank Lucy [Yu], who is our AI Energy Champion, for her excellent work on that.

The review has made a set of recommendations to government on moving towards a probabilistic grid…

…delivering tangible benefits for consumers, establishing clear governance and accelerating the deployment of AI solutions.

This is exciting stuff, pushing at the absolute frontier of global thinking on deploying AI in the energy sector.

Third and finally, our Interim AI Adoption Plan, published in June this year, highlights four key barriers to adoption…

…better data, clearer routes from innovation to deployment, trusted governance frameworks, and the skills and capabilities that we need to scale solutions across the system.

For start-ups, like the ones we have here today, those barriers are also market opportunities.

Opportunities to help unlock high-value datasets.

Opportunities to make critical infrastructure safer and more resilient.

Opportunities to bridge the gap between successful pilots and nationwide deployment.

And opportunities to build trusted AI systems that regulators, operators and consumers can have confidence in.

Let’s remember where we start from: The UK starts from a position of strength.

We have world-class universities.

A thriving technology ecosystem.

Leading renewable energy deployment.

And we already have examples of British companies creating exportable AI-enabled solutions for the energy sector.

We are leading the work to get our energy system ready to embrace the AI solutions you are already working on here today.

This is about exploring the potential of AI in our energy network, so that we can embrace it when the technology is ready.

That’s what we need to communicate to the public.

This is new territory for absolutely all of us.

And we have a real duty to not just create policy, but to also explain to people about why we’re doing it.

This is a frontier opening in the energy sector, where AI could resolve so many of the issues that have held us back in the past.

So just to conclude, congratulations to all of you on the massive achievement of being here today…

…because you’re on your way to solving some of the biggest challenges for our energy industry.

My final message to you is simple.

We need your ideas.

We need your ambition.

And we need your willingness to tackle some of the hardest problems in the energy system.

The transition that we are on the road to in the UK at the moment, to clean power is one of the great national projects of our time.

AI can help us get there faster.

And it has the power to unlock a cheaper, fairer, simpler energy system for millions of people.

Thank you.