![]() ![]() “The vast majority of our customers are watching as their sustainability plans are effectively put on hold,” Kipling says. A second car manufacturer seeking a connection for 14MW of solar capacity would need to wait until 2037. One big car manufacturer hoping to cut emissions from its factory by connecting a 5MW solar array to its site has been told they would need to wait until 2031, and would need to pay a £9m connection fee. Kipling says many of the projects he is developing for leading UK companies are caught in this backlog. But the “first come first served” rules of grid connection mean many viable projects that could move ahead at speed are stuck. Many are speculative applications from projects that are unlikely to move ahead. There are about 200 gigawatts worth of electricity projects waiting for a grid connection, according to research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, or enough to power 150m UK homes. The UK has the longest queue to connect to the electricity grid of any country in Europe. At the same time, giant offshore windfarms call for big infrastructure investments in transmission to transport electricity from miles off the north-east coast to densely populated areas in the south. Homes are expected to swap gas boilers for electric heat pumps, and combustion engine vehicles for electric cars.Įach new renewable energy project requires a new connection point, which in turn require grid reinforcements and more powerful local substations. The momentum behind new renewable energy developments is expected to build as UK demand for electricity is forecast to rise by about 50% by 2035. ![]() Today, a far larger number of small, renewable energy projects are mushrooming up across the UK to meet rising demand for electricity from homes and businesses. In the past, National Grid – the FTSE 100 company tasked with operating most of the UK’s electricity networks – needed to provide connection points for fewer, larger power plants. “ been speaking about climate action for over a decade now, so you would have to assume that they knew what would be required.” You could argue that it’s negligence,” he says. Överholm has joined a growing chorus of renewable developers calling for urgent reforms to the queueing system for renewable energy projects while work is undertaken to modernise the grid, from its giant transmission cables to the sprawl of pylons and local distribution networks.ĭavid Kipling, the chief executive of On-Site Energy, which develops renewable energy projects for big companies, said demand on the grid was “growing exponentially” with each new corporate sustainability pledge. There are many opportunities in rooftop solar, he says, but he wouldn’t pursue these further until there is change. To date, his company has plans to build a 70MW ground-mounted solar farm, and smaller rooftop solar projects for industrial energy users. “It’s sad when national governments lack that vision.” Överholm blames the government for failing to anticipate the upgrades Britain’s electricity grid would require to support a deluge of green projects. So how did a country so eager to boost its renewable energy supply fail to foresee this bottleneck? ![]()
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