The UK has seen some positive reforms in the energy sector over recent months which could have a huge impact on the UK’s road to net zero. Rob Moore, Chief Development Officer at battery energy storage company, Connected Energy, shares his views.
The recent establishment of Great British Energy is a strong declaration of the UK government’s intent to bring the country closer to net zero. It signals a strong message that the government wants to make Britain a clear-energy superpower and will help to accelerate the drive to meet clean energy targets by 2030.
Significantly, this positive move will see the UK Government following a more Nordic model. It makes a lot of sense for the Government to own generating assets, and for some of those assets to be placed in public ownership. This will enable citizens to reap the benefits of clean energy investment – through lower energy bills and profits for the nation – rather than the bank balances of energy developers.
The new partnership between Great British Energy and the Crown Estate is a clear statement that this government will accelerate the investment and development of renewable energy projects in the UK.
As part of this, one of the first policy announcements was the removal of the de facto ban on onshore wind developments. The policy tests that were in place effectively blocked onshore wind developments, making it impossible to get planning approval. With wind power one of the cheapest forms of power, the removal of the ban will support the ambition to double onshore wind developments by 2030, helping to secure investment and derisk projects. This is essential to help meet the UK’s net zero goals.
Perhaps, however, the immediate greenlighting of some very large solar farm projects is more controversial. It makes a lot of sense for the Government to own and manage green energy assets. However, projects being rushed through planning, against the recommendations of planning officers for ecological and landscaping concerns is not a positive move. What we need is appropriately sized, quality solar farms with the ability to connect to the grid; more wind and more energy storage.
Further policies are also needed to encourage the co-location of energy storage. Government, network operators, and industry, are now well aware of the relative dispatch profiles of BESS and renewable generation, and the opportunity that co-location with storage can bring. As a key enabler of renewable energy generation, energy storage can make a huge contribution to meeting net zero targets by balancing the intermittency of renewables and turning solar and wind into baseload generators.
If we want the UK to reap the benefits of this acceleration of renewable generation, and meet net zero goals, then policies must also encourage the co-location of energy storage in any new plans.
As Great British Energy seeks to reinvigorate the renewable industry, there is one major challenge ahead. That is the availability of grid connections.
Grid connections are one of the biggest challenges which the country faces in meeting net zero goals. If we are to speed up the acceleration of quality renewables projects, then the lack of grid connection is where the government should start.
The new Connections Reform project, run by the National Grid ESO, will hopefully go some way in helping to overcome this. The solution, named TM04+, will make it a lot quicker for projects to connect to the UK grid and overcome delays when requesting network connections. It will see us moving away from a ‘First-Come, First-Served’ approach to a model where projects that are ready to build, with planning consent, are no longer held back by delayed projects that are waiting in the queue ahead of them. This new model will pave the way for more quality projects by moving applications to a ‘Use it or lose it’ situation.
To support this, it is hoped that Great British Energy will make some firm announcements that will bring investment into the network to support more aggressive dispatch models and ensure our network assets are suitable for distributed energy sources.
Overall, it is clear that the new Labour government has ambitious plans to accelerate renewables and clean power. It will take time, and a collaborative approach is needed but the early signs are positive that we are heading in the right direction towards achieving net zero emissions.
Connected Energy is a global leader in developing, building and operating stationary battery energy storage systems using second-life batteries.
This article appeared in the September 2024 issue of Energy Manager magazine. Subscribe here.