£200bn renewable project queue to connect to National Grid - BBC report
National Grid would like us to start thinking about the future of energy and the changes required to get to Net Zero by 2050. This image from their blog is titled ‘Getting electricity to the right places at the right times’
The UK has a 2035 target for 100% of its electricity to be produced without carbon emissions. According to National Grid 48.5% of UK electricity generation was from zero carbon sources in 2022 (i.e. including nuclear) so there is a large gap to fill in the next 12 years. This comes at the same time as electricity demand is predicted to increase by roughly 50% in the same period.
The current problem seems to be that the electrical ‘pipes’ are not necessarily big enough to take the output of new wind and solar projects. As a result energy companies like Octopus Energy, one of Europe's largest investors in renewable energy, say they have been told by National Grid that they need to wait up to 15 years for some connections - far beyond the government's 2035 target.
According to a BBC News report on 11th May there are 1,100 projects in the queue for connection with an estimated capital value approaching £200bn.
National Grid will apparently be permitted by UK government to make the huge investments (£20 bn. is the current guess) in its infrastructure to cope with future demand and to raise this from us in the form of a levy on domestic and business energy bill payers.
All of us who run the UK’s SME’s have struggled with the enormous energy cost increases in the last year, and whilst there are signs that the worst is past, we are now going to have to collectively stump up for the Net Zero transition. Whilst the promise is that this will be offset by lower costs from renewables where the generated cost is zero (ignoring installation and service costs) this pricing regime does not yet exist.
At Seacourt, where we have purchased green electricity for more than 10 years, a partial answer has been to install the largest solar panel array we could fit on our office / factory roof. Whilst this still only covers 15% of our total electricity consumption it removes this amount from our draw on UK National Grid and gives us partial control of our total energy bill going forwards.
Getting to grips with the decisions we are all going to have to make about our future energy needs is complicated.
The recent BBC News story carries a lot of information
National Grid likewise publishes accessible and understandable reports