The Solar Power Portal team is at the UK Solar Summit in London today (1 July) reporting live from the event. Our rolling coverage can be found here; check back throughout the day to stay up-to-date as the event goes on.
‘The world is watching’
On a significant day for the UK solar sector – on which the groundbreaking Cleve Hill project began commercial operation – the event’s chair was optimistic about the role the UK will play in both its own, and the global, clean energy transition.
“Coming back from London Climate Action Week, it became really clear to me that the UK’s clean power 2030 plan is a really exciting time for us in the UK, and for those outside the UK,” said Phoebe O’Hara, clean power lead at the Energy Transitions Commission. “The world is watching … and for my generation in particular, we’ve got a lot of excitement around that and we’re really keen to be a part of that.”
However, O’Hara also highlighted a number of financial challenges for the UK solar sector. While speakers later described the UK as an “attractive” investment space for renewable energy investors, O’Hara noted that the UK’s energy transition needs to be “dependable and fair” for investors, as the energy mix is increasingly reliant upon variable renewable power.
Minister describes the UK energy transition as the economic opportunity of the century
Following O’Hara’s speech, Michael Shanks MP, parliamentary under-secretary of state for energy, discussed the government’s commitment to clean power by 2030, and some of the financial benefits that the energy transition will deliver.
“Crucially, it’s the economic opportunity of the 21st Century,” Shanks said. “For far too long, people across this country have faced the volatility of fossil fuel prices … for far too long we’ve been paying the price for our exposure to gas, and we need to do what we possibly can to remove that volatility, and this sprint to home-grown power is part of that.”
He described the UK government’s clean power commitment as “one of the top five priorities” for the Labour party, as he took questions on some of the challenges the UK still faces.
“It’s also about how we invest in supply chains, in skills and jobs in this country,” Shanks said, echoing concerns expressed by OVO Energy last year that just one-tenth of UK workers are trained in green skills. Building a comprehensive renewable energy supply chain in the UK, one that both removes fossil fuels from the country’s energy mix and gives workers the skills necessary to work in such a rapidly-changing landscape, is a priority for the government.
When asked about the potential for overseas workers to enter the UK to help fill this green skills gap, Shanks was optimistic that the UK can meet much of this demand with domestic workers, and that immigration only “has a part to play” in the future of the UK renewable power employment space.
“Part of the reason we’ve tried to give as much certainty as possible about the long-term plans is to give companies the scope to drive forward the skills investment in this space,” Shanks said. “Last week, I was at Scottish Power, where they were investing £4 billion [in supply chains] … what that has meant that the supply chain has been able to go away and recruit apprentices and transition workers from other industries.”
‘Community energy is really important’
Shanks was also asked about the benefits that renewable power can deliver for local communities, and described community energy as “really important”, both on a local and national scale.
“We think community energy is important for many reasons, partly because it’s important for community consent on some of the infrastructure we have to build; if communities own this infrastructure, they’re more likely to be supportive of it,” he said.
“Community benefits are important, but actual communities owning it and being able to spend the profits of it on their community can be life-changing,” Shanks continued. “GB Energy and my ministry will drive a local power plant – GB Energy on the financial aspects, government on the regulatory aspects – and we want to be really ambitious in this space.”
He pointed to a microgrid in operation on the Isle of Eigg off the Scottish coast as an example of the benefits of this approach. The island is not connected to the mainland Great Britain power grid, so the effective operation of a local grid that relies on renewable power for 95% of its electricity is an important proof of concept for the approach. Shanks also noted that there is such a surplus of power generated on the island that it can be sold back to the mainland grid, delivering revenue for local inhabitants.
“What they’ve managed to do is not just power the island, but plough the profits back into real economic and social development, and some of the people on the island themselves are skilled in energy [now].”
Collaboration and data transparency to accelerate grid connections
Industry leaders emphasised the urgent need for improved collaboration between transmission operators, distribution networks, and developers, alongside clearer data governance, to meet the growing demand for grid connections from clean energy projects and industrial users.
Speaking at the panel, Lisa Woolhouse, head of energy transition at SSEN Transmission, acknowledged the growing complexity of demand-side planning. “Demand has different security standards, different planning standards, and the configuration of the network means that you might need to make additional investments to secure that demand,” she said. “In essence, it’s an additional challenge and it’s good to hear OFGEM, it’s good to hear the National Energy System Operator (NESO) much more engaged in this space.”
Woolhouse stressed the need for strategic planning and urgency in connecting new demand sources such as data centers and hydrogen facilities. “As transmission companies, we don’t want to be the people that are not enabling. We want to connect people to our networks, because that’s what we do. But there’s still a gap in how we connect quickly to regional infrastructure and how projects are prioritised.”
Echoing the call for greater unity, Sarah Kenny-Levick, senior reform manager at National Grid, introduced the term “coopetition” – a blend of collaboration and competition – as the spirit the sector must embrace. “Here we need both, and we need to balance both,” she said.
Kenny-Levick pointed out that NESO alone cannot manage the complexity of the transition and must rely on transmission and distribution companies. “They’ve got the best insights into their areas, but it’s critical that the industry works together.”
She also called for industry-wide standardisation of data to improve transparency and reduce inefficiencies. “Digital tools that allow developers to see what allocation is available in certain areas will help make development delivery more efficient,” she said. “We, as consumers, don’t want to be paying for things that are not needed, and developers don’t either.”
Summing up her recommendations, Kenny-Levick highlighted that the industry needs “collaboration, data transparency, and addressing challenges head-on.”
UK races toward 2030 clean power goals amid hurdles
The UK’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, launched in December 2024, aims to reach 45-47GW of solar capacity by 2030. Developed in response to NESO’s CP30, it has accelerated momentum in the sector. However, Solar Energy UK is pushing for a 60GW target to “significantly lower electricity costs.” Challenges remain around planning, grid connections, and securing investment to meet the government’s clean energy goals.
Tim Warham, renewable electricity senior policy advisor at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, said the new plan marks a dramatic acceleration. “When we started, our focus was very much on 2035 – now all of a sudden, clean power by 2030 is trying to deliver something within five years,” he noted. “That’s enormously ambitious but has provided a very strong focus.”
A major shift in recent years has been the rise of large-scale solar. “Two years ago, there was only one nationally significant infrastructure project consented. Now there’s something like 22GW in the pipeline,” Warham added, while noting that smaller, locally connected projects still play a crucial role.
Despite policy ambition, delivery barriers persist. Ross Grier, chief investment officer at NextEnergy Capital, highlighted a “sticky, higher interest rate environment” and the need for policy certainty. “The capital for renewables is super transient,” he said. “The harder we make it to invest in GB, the easier it is for that capital to transition to other markets, and it does that at pace.”
Planning, grid connection and network limitations continue to slow deployment. “Networks have been a significant challenge,” Warham admitted, though recent reforms show progress. “Planning was something which wasn’t on the radar to start with, and we’ve seen a significant amount of focus and progress over the last two years.”
Yet one of the most promising developments is the “rooftop revolution.” Ministers are especially “enthusiastic about rooftop solar,” said Warham, pointing to policies like the Future Homes Standard and the Warm Homes Plan. “We already have 1.7 million rooftop solar installations in the country. We’re looking to increase that massively.”
Commercial and industrial rooftop projects are also scaling up, supported by groups like the UK Warehousing Association, which is releasing a solar toolkit for building owners.
Still, the scale of investment needed is daunting. “We’re talking about tens of billions of pounds flowing into the market,” Grier cautioned. “A stable policy environment and cleaning up reforms like Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) is fundamentally important.”
As the UK pushes toward 2030, stakeholders agree: collaboration, certainty, and accelerated action will determine whether solar can win the race.
