King Charles III is serious about his energy transition

This week, the British royal family published its annual financial report. The British monarch receives the so-called “Sovereign Grant” to cover the upkeep of official residences such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, as well as costs associated with representational duties. This is an annual allowance, which for years has amounted to the equivalent of almost 100 million euros, and is calculated from a percentage set by Parliament of the income from the Crown Estate, which, despite its name, has not belonged to the Crown since the 18th century, but to the state.

The Sovereign Grant Report is the Royal Household’s annual report on the use of funds for the Royal Household.

King Charles: Gasoline from wine and whey

As this report showed, Charles III is now purposefully implementing long-held plans to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the time-honored institution of the monarchy. For example, he is having two of the luxury limousines in the inherited royal fleet converted to biofuel for his state cars. He already has personal experience with such alternatively powered vehicles: his private Aston Martin vintage car has been running for years on a biomass called “E85”, a fuel mixture of 85 percent bioethanol and 15 percent unleaded gasoline, with bioethanol being obtained by fermenting the sugar and starch components of plant by-products, usually with the help of yeast from sugar cane and grain. But it can also be made, as for the royal Aston Martin, from surplus English white wine and cheese whey – as Charles himself proudly said in an interview with the British TV broadcaster BBC in 2021.

This transitional measure will give the king time to switch entirely to climate-friendly electric vehicles in the long term, a palace spokesman explained at the presentation of the report.

Use of renewable energies

And this is not the only measure that the famously environmentally conscious monarch has initiated since his accession to the throne to achieve his climate goals.

He has also started having solar panels installed at Windsor Castle whenever parts of the roof need replacing. A solar cell park is also currently being built on the grounds of his Sandringham residence, with around 2,000 panels on a large pasture. This will soon supply the entire 20,000 hectare estate with climate-neutral energy. The electricity for Windsor Castle has been generated for years by a hydroelectric power station with two turbines on the nearby Thames. This covers 40 percent of the electricity needs for the royal family’s ancestral home.

His private estate, Highgrove in Gloucestershire, has even had solar panels on the roof for years. Charles runs the farm there ecologically and sustainably: “Ethical management and the recycling of waste materials across the estate ensure that the land thrives in harmony with nature,” says the Highgrove website.

The house and outbuildings are heated by biomass boilers using wood pellets. Geothermal heat pumps are used to keep the employees warm in their cottages on the grounds with minimal energy consumption. But what regularly amazes visitors to the gardens, which are open to the public at certain times of the year, is the royal bio-sewage treatment plant: all of Highgrove’s wastewater flows into a specially installed reed bed sewage treatment system, which naturally filters wastewater so that it can be recycled and later reused for the toilets in the manor house and the visitor center. After all, all of these measures have already led to a three percent reduction in natural gas and heating emissions in the Royal Household.

Royal role model

The king has also been adopting a more sustainable lifestyle for years. He consciously avoids meat or fish twice a week, and one day he says he even eats vegan. Meanwhile, the fruit and vegetables for his and Queen Camilla’s meals come as far as possible from his own organic farms in Highgrove or Sandringham – and recently also from Balmoral in Scotland: There, the king had the large kitchen garden redesigned in relation to the growth cycles of the plants so that, thanks to the very long, bright days in Scotland in summer, Asian vegetables such as pak choi now thrive alongside cabbage, potatoes and spinach. Charles is now downright feared by hosts because of his high standards for the basic products of the dinners to which he is invited: he does not eat anything that is not fresh and locally harvested. He often even brings large baskets of home-grown organic fruit and vegetables as well as honey from his Highgrove bees to weekend invitations – because he drinks his morning tea with milk and honey.

Problem royal logistics

This year, the King was unable to achieve one of his goals for a more sustainable lifestyle, namely to fly less in his private life and in connection with his public duties, due to his cancer diagnosis, which limited his mobility. In poor health, he has had to rely more frequently since January on helicopter transport between his country residences and London, where he has to attend weekly chemotherapy sessions.

But at least sustainable fuel is now increasingly being used for royal flights. And anyone who might be thinking: Charles has his own train, the “Royal Train”, with which he could travel in a climate-friendly way should bear in mind that a single trip on this private train costs no less than the equivalent of 30,000 euros. In addition, it is not very energy efficient to travel with nine carriages just for the king and queen and a maximum of 15 to 20 of their employees and a few security guards. This is only worthwhile for appointments in remote areas of the kingdom that also require one or more overnight stays. Because it is of course more comfortable and safer on the royal train if there is no suitable and well-protected hotel for the royal couple at the destination. This is also why, according to the financial report, two new helicopters are to be purchased for the royal family next year that use less fuel.

High revenues from wind farms

A separate report from the Crown Estate, released at the same time, revealed for the first time the level of revenue generated from the growing green energy market. According to the report, profits rose to €1.3 billion last year, thanks to revenue from six offshore wind farms off the UK’s coasts. However, only a small proportion of the wind farm income benefits the monarchy, but mainly people across the UK, after Charles asked that most of the increased revenue be used for “the common good”. As a result of this request, the proportion of Crown Estate profits earmarked for the government grant will fall from 25 per cent to 12 per cent in 2025-26, leaving an additional €170 million available for public projects across the UK.

“All of these approaches are part of the larger plan to have a significant impact on Britain’s carbon emissions in the coming years,” Buckingham Palace also emphasized last week when presenting its financial report. And with that, climate King Charles is also in line with the plans of the new British government under Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. He recently announced the conclusion of a major deal between the company Great British Energy and the Crown Estate. It is estimated that the new partner company’s investments will bring the state up to 20 to 30 gigawatts of new offshore wind turbines – enough “clean” electricity for the equivalent of almost 20 million households on the island. Perhaps a few kilowatt hours of this will also be left over for the most famous British household, Buckingham Palace, to further reduce the monarchy’s carbon footprint.