The UK solar industry added 7 GW of new capacity in three years, with annual additions from 2023 to 2025 reaching levels not seen since 2016.

More growth is expected, following successive rounds of record-breaking solar procurement in UK contracts-for-difference (CfD) auctions, and a run of utility-scale plants securing approval through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) planning stream – with roughly 7 GW of capacity greenlit across 17 projects. Decisions on the 400 MW Beacon Fen project and 840 MW Botley West were imminent as pv magazine went to press.

Ramped up utility-scale deployment is needed if the UK government is going to hit its solar capacity target for 2030. The government wants at least 45 GW of solar connected by then, more than double the 22.8 GW of capacity recorded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) at the end of June 2026.

Chris Hewett, chief executive at Solar Energy UK, explained pv magazine that the UK industry is more than ready to achieve that goal.

“The pipeline is huge,” said Hewett. “It’s nearly 20 GW of solar projects that have got planning permission now. There’s another 18 GW to 20 GW in the pipeline, so actually in the planning system. So there’s enough projects to meet the government’s targets and our targets.”

Connection gremlins

Until now, grid-scale solar in the United Kingdom has mainly been standalone projects, but Hewett acknowledged growing interest in co-location. The issue, he said, was the way these projects are currently handled in the connections queue.

Great Britain’s grid operator NESO has overhauled the way connections applications are managed, shifting from a first-come, first-served methodology to a process that focuses on project readiness and system needs. The process has caused headaches for many solar and energy storage projects, with additional administrative burden, delays, and in some cases, revised offers for PV plants with significantly higher costs.

“On the one hand, we’ve had connection reform and lots of people have offers,” said Hewett. “Lots of those offers are way higher in cost than they were expecting, and some of them are wrong, and some are millions of pounds in excess of what they were suggested.”

Hewett said some of that additional cost will be due to inflation, but described information sharing around why costs have risen so sharply as opaque. Network reinforcement costs may have risen, but how an initial offer of less than GBP 1 million ($1.35 million) in 2021 can exceed GBP 3 million in 2026, for example, is unclear.

For co-located projects, things get even more complicated. NESO’s reform process treats ­technologies independently. The grid operator has capacity limits for solar, battery energy storage systems, wind and other technologies in defined regions across the network.

“The number one problem in connection reform is this situation where we’re getting loads of co-location projects being told yes, you can plug in the solar in 2028 and the battery can be 2035,” Hewett said. “That just goes back to the fact that NESO has a solar bucket, a battery bucket, a wind bucket, and that’s how they see the world.”

“We’re arguing quite firmly behind the scenes that [this] needs to be fixed.”

Hewett acknowledged that this lobbying is unlikely to change current connection offers, but was hopeful of reform in time for the next connection application window, which is expected to open later in 2026.

Planning reform

Changes to the planning system have also supported solar deployment in the United Kingdom, including a more enthusiastic approach to large-scale projects from central government. Solar projects in England with capacity greater than 100 MW are deemed Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) and are subject to a more involved planning process than at local authority level. But those approvals are happening more quickly than before and are now better protected from legal challenge when approved. Mandatory pre-application consultations for NSIP projects have also been scrapped, in a move that’s expected to cut development timelines by up to 12 months.

That’s not to say there aren’t still planning challenges. Hewett said Solar Energy UK still sees many projects facing difficulties implementing planning requests, particularly around archaeology requirements. It’s not unheard of for a local archaeologist to tell a developer they need to dig up 2% of a land area in a process that can cost millions of pounds.

To combat this, Solar Energy UK has been working with the archaeology profession in a bid to create standardized procedures.

“That’s gone really well,” Hewett said. “So hopefully we start to see that not become such an issue.”

Residential solar

Above ground, the UK solar industry should be in line for a subsidy-backed increase in residential and commercial and industrial (C&I) demand. Former DESNZ Secretary of State Ed Miliband called for a “rooftop revolution” when he took on the job in July 2024, and the UK government has since all but mandated rooftop solar for new-build housing in England from 2027, while in the rental sector private landlords will need to meet higher energy efficiency standards by 2030. New grant and loan support for rooftop installations is also coming via the Warm Homes Plan, and the government estimates the support program could put solar panels on the roofs of up to 3 million more homes by 2030.

Hewett said he doesn’t expect the new UK prime minister to change the policy direction, and what the industry needs now is the final details on support that will be offered.

Solar also has a new route to market in the United Kingdom, after regulations for plug-in devices came into effect on Aug. 27. While Solar Energy UK has welcomed the introduction of plug-in solar to the UK market, the 800 W capacity limit for these devices means a full-scale rooftop system from a certified installer will still be the best option for consumers, according to the trade association.

Whether consumers warm up to plug-in products or not, UK solar enters a crucial period with the ingredients for growth. It’s down to the industry, policymakers, grid operators and planning officers to make ambitious 2030 targets a reality.
Matthew Lynas

UK solar deployment has returned to levels not seen since 2016, when the feed-in tariff rate was slashed. The renewable obligation certificates (ROC) program for utility-scale projects also closed to new applicants in 2017.

The post The great British takeoff appeared first on pv magazine Global.