Biofuel Bentleys are coming for Britain's green king

LONDON -- What do you do when you travel in a chauffeur-driven Bentley but want to be known as the green king?

King Charles III plans to resolve this quandary by converting two state Bentleys to run on biofuel. That will give him time to go electric, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday as it released the royal accounts for the financial year ended March 31.

The king also installed solar panels at Windsor Castle and increased the use of sustainable aviation fuel for royal flights.

“Small steps, but part of a much wider plan to make a significant impact on our carbon emissions in the years ahead,’’ Michael Stevens, keeper of the privy purse, told reporters in London.

The report on the sovereign grant, the mechanism used to fund royal spending, showed that Charles spent 89.1 million pounds ($114.9 million) last year, including 30.4 million pounds on the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, a 10-year project scheduled to be completed in 2027.

Charles undertook 464 official engagements last year, even though he stepped away from public-facing duties for several weeks after he was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer, the palace said. Queen Camilla made 201 appearances, including 103 with the king.

To help speed them on their way, the royal household will take delivery of two new helicopters in the coming year to replace aging aircraft.

A separate report from the Crown Estate, an independent business that manages assets held by the sovereign during his lifetime, also showed for the first time the scale of the financial windfall the royal family will receive from Britain’s growing green energy market. The Crown Estate said profits rose to 1.1 billion pounds last year, driven by income from six offshore windfarms.

That will boost public funding for the royals by 52% to 132 million pounds in 2025-26 because the sovereign grant is based on a percentage of the income generated by the Crown Estate two years previously. An estimated 60 million pounds from the 2025-26 grant will go toward the restoration of Buckingham Palace.

But the windfarms will also spin off benefits for people around Britain after Charles asked that the bulk of the windfall be used for “the wider public good.” As a result of that request, the share of Crown Estate profits dedicated to the sovereign grant will drop to 12% in 2025-26 from the current 25%, leaving an additional 143 million pounds for public spending.

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