Will the sun shine on a Labour Government’s solar ambitions?
2 May 2024 | Admin
By Katie Phillips
I attended Solar and Storage Live last week to hear about the latest innovations in the sector and issues facing the industry. It’s clear from the event that solar power has a major role to play in meeting Net Zero targets.
As we head into the General Election with around a quarter of young people ranking the environment as their top issue when they go to the vote, rapidly moving towards Net Zero is the policy that can and should define the next parliament. Labour’s strong national polling, and continued success at by-elections points to the Party forming a government this year.
With this in mind, after spending the past few years setting out their stall on a range of issues, including reaching Net Zero, Labour is formulating its plans to deliver on the policies that will define their premiership.
This includes tripling solar generation in the UK – a sensible policy considering solar is the cheapest and quickest form of renewable energy.
Of course, ambition alone won’t be enough to achieve this. So, while Labour takes the remaining time left before a General Election to put its plans together, what barriers does it need to overcome?
I’ve reflected on some interesting insights from Solar and Storage Live below.
Reform our planning system
A lack of expertise at council level in the consenting of solar farms is one of the biggest barriers a Labour Government should look to address. The current deficit in officer expertise is creating practical problems in the deployment of solar. For the average planning application in England, the chance of success at appeal sits around an unencouraging 30%. This figure absolutely rockets up to 86% for solar projects over the past 13 months, highlighting a clear issue with decision making for solar farms at a council-level.
There’s currently 9GW of solar power in the planning system, waiting to be unleashed. Labour should prioritise hiring and upskilling planners across the country, to ensure local authorities across the country are bringing forth the energy mix needed to get the UK to Net Zero.
Fix the grid
Creating a diversified energy mix for the UK, which supports solar and other forms of renewable energy requires an electricity grid that is renewables-ready. At one event at Solar and Storage Live last week, it was reiterated that to reach COP28 targets, we need to deploy seven times more Battery Energy Storage Systems than we currently have.
In the meantime, queues for solar farms to get a grid connection are growing, holding solar farms back from inputting the energy they’re producing. As Solar Energy UK’s Chief Executive Christ Hewett noted at a recent Energy Security and Net Zero Committee “it is like being told you can open a shop on the High Street, as long as you keep the doors locked.”
A Labour Government must roll out more technology to support an electricity system that increases the amount of renewable energy on the grid so that the UK can be powered by cleaner and more affordable renewable energy.
Back the builders not the blockers
It’s not only the planning system holding back the UK’s solar potential- with NIMBY groups often standing in the way of consents.
What the Labour Party must understand, and comments from Starmer about NIMBYism suggests they do, is that it’s usually a vocal minority that are holding back positive decisions on solar. Vocal opposition to solar causes a perception issue for local politicians who overestimate the number of actual objectors in a community. YouGov polling in August 2023 actually found that 58% of people would be embarrassed if their MP was campaigning against a solar farm and 80% would be supportive if one was being built in their area.
The Labour Party can do a couple of things to give more weight to the majority – normalise positive engagement with the planning process and get tough with the MPs and councillors who hold projects back, so developers can start consistently delivering vital projects like solar.