Ed Miliband has appointed Juergen Maier CBE as chair of the newly formed Great British Energy vehicle.

A former CEO of Siemens, the British-Austrian moved to the UK in 1974, and is currently chair of Innovate UK's Digital Catapult, vice-chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

In an official statement, Maier said: "Great British Energy can help clear a path for those emerging technologies which could revolutionise the entire sector, for example this may include technologies such as floating offshore wind, tidal, hydrogen generation and storage, and carbon capture.”

Maier was at pains to point out the need for the need of private finance and industry commitment, using the phrase “working in lockstep with industry” and “collaboration which will be key to our success”.

Which does rather leave a few questions over how such finance will be created, and whether Great British Energy will truly be a ‘publicly-owned company’ or suffer a similar fate to the UK Green Investment Bank.

Mier remains an optimist, saying: “If we can combine the power of the private sector and government, we can accelerate the clean energy transition. And we can deliver stronger energy security, lower emissions and a boom in good green jobs across the country.”

The management structure and other positions within Great British Energy's governance are as yet to be revealed.

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