Great British Energy has announced that Dan McGrail will remain chief executive of the state-owned energy firm, following his time as interim CEO.
McGrail was named interim CEO of Great British Energy in February of this year, having previously served as chief executive of industry trade body RenewableUK.
In the four months since his interim appointment, McGrail has led Great British Energy to announce a £1 billion investment into offshore wind supply chains, brought rooftop solar PV installations to 11 schools across the country, and pushed for amendments to the Great British Energy Bill that ban the use of solar products with forced labour in their supply chains.
Additionally, Great British Energy announced in March of this year that it would invest £200 million to install rooftop solar PV arrays on a total of 400 schools and NHS sites, with around £80 million dedicated to solar PV installations for 200 schools, and £100 million to fund solar installations across almost 200 NHS sites.
Of McGrail’s permanent appointment, energy secretary Ed Miliband said that McGrail had been “a visionary leader” in his interim appointment period, adding that he brings “world-class private sector experience to our publicly-owned clean power company”. Miliband added: “I look forward to working with Dan to unleash the benefits of clean energy, driving growth and new jobs in communities.”
McGrail called the permanent role of CEO “a privilege” and stated that Great British Energy “will now focus on scaling up as Britain’s publicly owned energy company, making strategic investments that drive forward the government’s clean power mission and give people a stake in clean energy.”
Great British Energy will continue to be led by McGrail from its Aberdeen headquarters.
Great British Energy moves forward
The Great British Energy Bill, which formally establishes the state-owned energy company, passed through Parliament in early May of this year. Great British Energy was originally set to be funded by £8.3 billion of investment, but last month’s governmental Spending Review 2025 saw £2.5 billion of government funds diverted away from Great British Energy to the UK’s nuclear power sector, specifically to fund the development of small modular reactors (SMRs).
Speaking at Solar Media’s UK Solar Summit earlier this month, Rob Gilbert, director of supply chain for Great British Energy, stated that the newly established company will aim to be an active partner and equity investor in clean energy supply chain businesses, with an aspiration to become “one ecosystem for public finance”, in order to make the process of accessing capital for decarbonisation simpler and more efficient.
