Optimism ahead

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The new year may have got off to a challenging start as the UK enters another lockdown, but there are  plenty of grounds for optimism in 2021. With a new US administration we can expect to see some genuine global leadership on tackling climate change at last. And hopes are riding high that COP26, the UN climate change conference delayed due to Covid, hosted here in Glasgow in November, will deliver a real breakthrough in international cooperation. 

Solar’s role in a Net Zero future

In terms of domestic energy policy, 2020 ended on a positive note as the government unveiled its long overdue Energy White Paper, setting out its plans for a ‘decisive and permanent’ shift away from fossil fuels. This was the latest in a recent slew of policy announcements which also included the Committee on Climate Change’s Sixth Carbon Budget and the government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. 

To achieve our target of Net Zero emissions by 2050, the White Paper states we will need to slash emissions from industry, transport and buildings by 230 million metric tonnes over the next 10 years - equivalent to taking 7.5 million petrol cars off the road permanently. 

While nuclear power grabbed most of the headlines, with a controversial proposal to invest taxpayers’ money in Sizewell C nuclear reactor in Suffolk – seemingly at odds with policy that prioritises “affordability” for consumers – the government also restated its firm commitment to renewables. 

While the Ten Point Plan focused on the newer and sexier technologies, from hydrogen to small modular nuclear reactors (notwithstanding the even higher costs of smaller scale nuclear power), the White Paper makes it clear that these will be complementary to the long-established, proven energy generation technologies that are helping bring down consumers’ bills.

“Onshore wind and solar will be key building blocks of the future generation mix, along with offshore wind. We will need sustained growth in the capacity of these sectors in the next decade to ensure that we are on a pathway that allows us to meet net zero emissions in all demand scenarios.”

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Capacity growth

The government’s energy models suggest capacity growth of an additional 80 – 120 GW of new solar is needed by 2050. These numbers followed on from the Sixth Carbon Budget from the Committee on Climate Change, the government’s policy advisers, which stated that the UK should target 85 GW of new solar by 2050 to achieve its Balanced Net Zero Pathway.

That equates to 3GW every year – the equivalent of building annually sixty 50 MW solar farms (the target size to be economically viable for most solar developments in the current subsidy-free environment). And it comes at the lowest levelised cost of any new generation technology, at £44 per MWh (4.4p/kWh) by 2025, meaning that solar power could generate 10 to 15% of the UK’s total power requirement at a continuing low cost. 

The UK currently has an installed capacity of 13GW of large-scale solar, which has taken almost ten years to achieve. Clearly, we will need a step change to achieve the government’s targets and decarbonise the energy sector. 

Smarter solutions

The White Paper also recognises the critical role battery storage and other technological infrastructure innovations will have on delivering our future energy system:

“Increasingly, flexibility will come from new, cleaner sources, such as energy storage in batteries, increased interconnected capacity from neighbouring electricity markets, or from consumers using smart technologies to reduce how much energy they use or shift when they use the energy to different times in the day. New forms of flexibility could lower future costs for consumers, by minimising expensive network reinforcement or reducing the need for additional generation, especially peaking capacity which needs to be deployed quickly to meet spikes in demand.”

Eden is designing battery storage into all our sites, along with the latest technical innovations such as bifacial modules and tracker systems, to make sure we deliver the optimal carbon and system benefits.

Maximising land use

Land used for solar development can and should support other uses to tackle important issues of our time. The corollary of the climate emergency is the ecological emergency, which is why we are proud to have led the solar industry in the UK and the US in establishing the highest standards for enhancing and creating wildlife habitats at all our sites.

We are also facing an agricultural emergency, as farming struggles to transition from the carbon intensive and ecologically damaging methods of the last 30 years to a more sustainable basis. We need to feed the growing population against a backdrop of twin challenges of Brexit and climate change causing loss of soil carbon, pollution and reduction in biodiversity. Land used for a solar farm can continue to be used in food production with sheep grazing, while leaving it fallow for the lifetime of the solar farm helps to sequester carbon and regenerate the soil.

Eden welcomes the government’s bold and ambitious energy strategy: “turning climate ambition into climate action - putting the UK firmly on the course to net-zero to end our contribution to climate change as we build back greener,” in the words of Alok Sharma, former Business and Energy Secretary and President of COP26. And as business gets underway in 2021, we look forward to seeing more policy details to underpin these targets, and playing our role in delivering them. 

Read the Energy White Paper in full.