The new UK government has brought positive changes to the UK’s solar sector, but more needs to be done, industry leaders say.
On the first day of this year’s Solar Finance and Investment Europe conference, on a panel moderated by Solar Energy UK CEO Chris Hewett, experts from across the solar industry, many of whom are members of the UK Solar Taskforce, expressed their views on what needs to be done to boost the UK’s solar and energy capacity and hit net zero goals.
Hewett noted that since the election of a Labour government in July last year, and in particular the appointment of energy secretary Ed Miliband, “political will” has increased immensely. The cabinet shakeup has removed much of the “lagging doubt” associated with the previous administration, as many of the “backbenchers who hated solar” have left government since the election.
Planning and policy
However, much more still needs to be done. Mark Wakeford, CEO of EVOEnergy stated that while “we’re very lucky in the UK that the government has decarbonisation as a priority and is willing to make big choices on planning”, reforms need to take place, and not only for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs). Wakeford added that it is still too easy for the time and effort put into local planning procedures to go to waste, despite a large proportion of the nation being in favour of solar. “It takes time and effort to go through the town and country planning process, and is too easy for local councils to say no to projects because of the local political climate and then blame it on the planning inspectorate”.
Furthermore, Wakeford stated that the lack of people working in planning inspector and approval positions is increasing solar project delays.
CfDs and green skills
The panel agreed that the most recent allocation round for the UK’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, AR6, was a positive for the UK solar industry. EDF Renewables UK & Ireland principal business development manager, Remy Gillet, notes that the £530 million increase to the CfD budget for AR6 was a “great signal to industry that the government was supporting the growth of solar and other technologies” and the resulting 3.3GW of solar procurement was “very encouraging for the future”.
Furthermore, the panel emphasised the importance of green skills, which our sister publication Current± covered in a recent blog post. Pacific Green CEO Ben Fawcett noted that green skills were a “big focus” of the Solar Taskforce, while Wakeford added that the taskforce is working alongside Solar Energy UK to design and develop industry-standard benchmarks to define qualification standards for green skills across the industry. However, reskilling and continuing education for those already in the industry is both vital and a challenge, with Wakeford questioning: “How do we get people out of the industry into colleges? It’s very difficult”, before urging developers of projects with community benefit funds to use them to support local colleges to help upskill more industry workers.
