A commentary on UK renewable energy uptake and barriers to progress
On the 18th July 2024, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) laid before parliament their report on progress made in reducing emissions. It contained a call for urgent action, as well as the main areas of improvement for the UK to reach their 2030 targets and beyond. The CCC was established under the Climate Change Act of 2008 to advise the UK government on emissions targets and progress against them to ensure we are adapting to climate change and its impacts. The CCC undertakes an annual assessment of policies which they submit to Parliament. The UK has set interim commitments before the target to be Net Zero by 2050. These include a 68% emissions reduction by 2030 and 78% reduction by 2037 compared to 1990 levels, as well as the ambition from the Labour Government for a fully electrified grid by 2030.
The UK has met all of their emissions targets so far, with a significant fall in emissions seen in 2023 from 2022 levels. 2023 was also the first year that renewable energy generation exceeded fossil fuel generation. In September 2024, the UK’s last coal-fired power station closed, with the UK becoming the first G7 nation to phase out coal-generated electricity completely. However, despite these positive stories, the CCC state that the UK are not on track to hit their emissions reductions target due to a lack of low-carbon technology roll-outs; and not just renewable energy generation but also heat pumps and electric vehicles.
Solar panels and batteries have seen significant cost reductions in recent years, and this should lay the foundation for the uptake that is needed to reach the current UK ambition of a decarbonised electricity grid by 2030. Despite the 9% increase in solar PV capacity in 2023 reaching 16 gigawatts (GW), progress is not fast enough. The CCC states that solar capacity needs to increase fivefold to reach the ambition of 70 GW by 2035 of installed solar capacity. The production of energy from wind is also falling short of the UK government targets, with offshore wind needing to triple and onshore wind double by 2030. 2023 saw low levels of offshore wind deployment, with the failed Allocation Round 5 (AR5) Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction, where renewable energy producers enter into contracts with a government-owned entity in which bidders receive a fixed price for their energy over the contract period to ensure stable revenue for the energy producers. The government did not adjust the prices they are willing to bid, for increased supply chain costs within offshore wind investments. This set back deployment of offshore wind. Policy should assist in the commissioning of offshore and onshore wind, rather than hindering it.
The CCC states that the stagnation of onshore energy projects has been due to barriers in the planning process and messaging from the government. Onshore wind developments have to undergo stricter approval processes from the National Planning Policy Framework than other renewables. Furthermore, large energy projects are facing lengthy delays securing development consent orders. The CCC recommends the removal of barriers to planning for onshore wind, as well as heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers, to ensure technologies can be rolled out effectively.
Furthermore, grid capacity and the difficulty in securing a grid connection is a major barrier to renewable energy deployment. The current UK energy grid can be traced back to the 1950s, when the grid was significantly expanded to distribute energy from large fossil fuel generators throughout Britain. However, there needs to be significant updates to the grid with Britain’s electricity demands set to rise by up to 65% by 2035. The investment in renewable energy generation has outstripped the capacity of the transmission infrastructure to cope, resulting in bottlenecks and instances where energy is wasted as well as grid connection dates being set in excess of a decade in the future. There must be a countrywide effort to upgrade the grid network and reduce planning barriers over the next decade, or the likelihood of the UK reaching their decarbonisation targets is reduced.
In 2024, the Labour government announced new bills which aim to increase the renewable energy generation of the UK and hence progress against emissions reductions targets. These include the creation of GB energy, a publicly owned power company investing in renewables, as well as the Crown Estate Bill which aims to allow for easier investment in public infrastructure such as renewables. There has, however, been concerns raised over funding GBE would receive, not matching the scale of the challenge of grid decarbonisation.
This is an especially important time for UK climate and energy targets, with the government setting their 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which outline the UK’s emissions reductions and climate adaptation goals, between November 2024 and February 2025. The necessity of increased renewable energy generation and the barriers from planning, policy and infrastructure is a difficult act to balance.