Solar energy and the new government – 8 Reasons for optimism

The new government’s climate commitments are objectively the most ambitious of any UK government we have seen. ‘Clean energy by 2030’ is the second mission of their manifesto. Moreover, their Green Prosperity Plan is seen as a key pillar of their stated first mission – namely economic growth.

This week’s Kings Speech included a number of bills which will have a direct impact on the solar energy sector in the UK. They offer a number of reasons for guarded optimism which collectively have the potential to be profoundly impactful:

1. Targets

The goal of achieving a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030 is five years ahead of the previous government’s timeline. To meet that 2030 goal, there is the target to triple the existing level of solar PV in the UK to 50GW.

2. Taskforce

To meet such ambitious targets urgent and sustained action is required. This week brought the positive news that the joint government-industry ‘Solar Taskforce’ is being re-activated, to focus on the roadmap for the practical measures needed for delivery. Under the experienced co-chairmanship of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Solar Energy UK Chief Executive Chris Hewett, the taskforce will hope to hit the ground running.

3. Infrastructure

The new Government has been quick out of the blocks to approve some nationally significant infrastructure projects, that had previously been blocked. In the first week in office, it has granted development consent orders for three solar farms in the East of England totalling over 1.3GW of generation capacity. To give an idea of scale, these alone represent about two-thirds of the entire level of solar energy installed last year – enough to power 92,000 homes over the next 60 years.

4. Planning and the National Grid

The Labour manifesto acknowledged that the state of the national grid is the single biggest obstacle to achieving their goals for the electricity system. The Kings Speech includes the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which has explicit aims to accelerate the necessary upgrades to the National Grid; streamline planning approvals and expand local planning capacity. This is great news for the solar industry, but the devil will of course be in the detail.

5. Finance

Although dwarfed in comparison to the original annual commitment of £28 Billion for ‘The Green Prosperity Plan’, there is nonetheless, a commitment to new public investment and to unlock new private sector finance. The centrepiece of this is the Bill to establish Great British Energy – a state owned public / private investment vehicle with an injection of £8.3 Billion of public funds over the parliament.

6. Local Power Plan

In addition to major energy infrastructure projects, Great British Energy will have an initial sum of £3.3Billion ringfenced to provide funding to local authorities and communities to enable them to build distributed, small scale local energy projects. These projects will reduce pressure on the grid and such investment has the potential to deliver a step change in community energy.

7. Jobs

To deliver the Green Prosperity Plan there is a target to create 650,000 jobs in clean power industries. The ‘Solar Taskforce’ has a specific remit for employment, skills and training. We look forward to hearing what additional initiatives and investment will go into meeting the skills gap. Tracey Elliott, one of our directors, is a member of the Solar Energy UK Solar Skills Working Party. This operates under the auspices of the ‘Solar Taskforce’ and will be helping to implement their recommendations.

8. Leadership

With Ed Miliband taking on the role of the Minister For Energy Security and Net Zero, Britain has very experienced leadership both for its domestic clean energy mission, but also to influence international negotiations and raise global ambition. After all the government’s 2030 clean energy strategy is to deliver domestically on a global commitment made at COP28 to triple installed renewable energy capacity.

Chris Stark

The government has also just made the excellent appointment of the very experienced former Chief Executive of The Climate Change Committee, Chris Stark, who will lead a new control centre to deliver the government’s clean energy mission for 2030. He will particularly focus on breaking down the barriers and accelerating progress on energy projects.

The Labour Government has a significant parliamentary majority, that will enable them to push through this legislation at the necessary pace. It is also good to know that they will have Liberal Democrat and Green MP’s with similarly ambitious energy manifestos adding their scrutiny and support. We also have a very experienced caucus of Peers in the second chamber @Peers for the Planet who will look to ensure the legislation has the necessary ambition and effectiveness.

The scale of systemic change required, means that the next few years will be far from straight forward for the UK renewable energy sector, but for now we can embrace some real optimism that we are taking some positive steps in the right direction.

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