RenewableUK Cymru has issued a clear challenge to the next Welsh Government to back a clean power strategy saying that otherwise it will risk billions in investment, thousands of skilled jobs and millions in community funding flowing elsewhere in the UK.

Cymru Clean Power: Call for Government 2026 outlines how Wales could unlock a £10bn economic opportunity for Welsh businesses, create 8,000 secure, well-paid jobs, and deliver affordable, home-grown energy if government and industry work together in a formal Cymru Clean Power Partnership.

Electricity demand in Wales is projected to double and potentially triple by 2050. Two planned AI zones alone could require as much electricity as a city the size of Cardiff. Electrified heavy industry, electric vehicles and heat pumps will all add to that demand. Yet most of Wales’ electricity still comes from imported gas, exposing households and businesses to volatile global prices.

Wales has wind and tidal resources that could, the paper argues, be used to power its future, if energy production and its grid network are comprehensively modernised.

Jessica Hooper, director of RenewableUK Cymru, said: “As parties set out their priorities for Wales, energy is our defining economic choice. Clean energy is one of the UK’s fastest-growing industries. Wales has the natural resources, the projects in the pipeline, and investors ready to go. But without a grid fit for the future, that opportunity will not be realised.”

At the heart of the Call for Government is a proposed Cymru Clean Power Partnership, a two-way agreement between government and industry that would commit to specific government targets for wind, solar and tidal, a faster, well-resourced planning system, grid modernisation and a stable, long-term policy and investment framework

Industry would, in return, commit to Welsh jobs, local supply chains, community benefit standards and delivering measurable local economic and environmental value.

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