Clean Power 2030 a ‘tremendous opportunity’ for the solar industry

Solar Power Portal discusses solar PV’s role in the UK’s Clean Power 2030 ambitions with one of the key figures in delivering Contracts for Difference and the Capacity Market.

The upcoming seventh auction round (AR7) of the government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is pegged to be the biggest yet.

At the UK Solar Summit 2025, Neil McDermott, CEO of the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) and Electricity Settlements Company (ESC), will deliver the keynote AR7: Impacts and Expectations, addressing the impacts on the UK’s solar landscape, and the role of emerging technologies such as long-duration storage.

LCCC and ESC manage CfD contracts and the Capacity Market (CM) respectively, with pivotal roles in contract management, settlements and development of the these key markets.

Solar Power Portal spoke to McDermott ahead of the event, about the important role of CfD in providing a route to market and bringing solar projects to realisation.

What are some of the opportunities you are seeing in the current UK solar market?

The predicted growth of solar over the next five years, particularly with the Clean Power 2030 ambition that government has, means that I think there’s tremendous opportunity for the solar industry.

In the CfD auctions, solar is dominating in terms of the number of contracts, if not capacity, showing that potential.

What are the challenges to that opportunity?

NESO identified in its CP2030 report that there are challenges including planning reform and grid connection reform. Connection reform is a key part, and NESO is working on a system prioritising technologies and locations for connection and the buildout of the grid which is linked to that.

NESO and the government are working on critical aspects from planning through grid build out through connections reform, and all these need to go in the right direction for CP2030 to be achieved.

From LCCC’s perspective, the CfD policy is strong. It’s a policy that’s been in place for over ten years, and we are seeing solar grow in terms of the number of contracts that are coming out of the auctions: in allocation round six (AR6), we got 130 contracts, of which some 90 were solar.

CfD is an important route-to-market for solar and other technologies. It’s providing a 15-year fixed price for the output from solar farms, and that gives confidence to the market.

There are multiple options for solar, of which CfD is one, like selling into the corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) market as well. Coming out of allocation rounds 5 and 6 (AR5, AR6), we are seeing the evidence of solar growth, and we are working with those developers awarded contracts now to support them through the process of realising these projects—we work to support generators to get these projects built and operating.

How can the industry work together to meet the CP30 target of 47GW solar capacity by 2030?

Because we are owned by the government, we triangulate between developers, trade bodies and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

From our perspective, as a nonprofit organisation and commercial counterparty to the CfD scheme, our main motivation is to see these projects go ahead. Where there are challenges, be they from policy or consultation or other areas of the supply chain, we can triangulate between trade bodies, developers and government to find solutions.

Ultimately, we all want to see these projects get built and ensure that we can reach clean power by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

What are you looking forward to at the UK Solar Summit 2025?

The networking opportunity. It’s a concentrated environment where you get to catch up with people you know and meet some knew people, to talk about industry issues, and growing our company profile.

People from the industry, regulators, other delivery bodies and government representatives are there, so it’s a really good opportunity to link up with people and help others make links too.

On 1-2 July, the UK Solar Summit 2025 will be co-located with the Green Hydrogen Summit UK 2025 and the Wind Power Finance & Investment Summit as part of the Clean Power 2030 Summits, hosted by our publisher Solar Media. Book your ticket here; use our exclusive code, SPP20, for a ticket discount!