UK Solar Roadmap: Everything you need to know!
The UK Solar Roadmap, a collaborative effort between the UK Government and the solar industry, sets out an ambitious strategy to significantly increase solar deployment by 2030, aiming for 45-47GW of installed solar capacity, with the potential to reach up to 57GW. This initiative is crucial for boosting the UK’s energy independence, lowering consumer bills, and combating climate change. For Segen and the wider solar sector, this roadmap signifies a period of substantial growth and opportunity.
The 72-page document is now available in full to read at your leisure (Linked below!), but for those of you in a rush, here are the biggest takeaways from this long-awaited announcement:
- Ambitious Deployment Targets: The roadmap outlines a clear ambition to treble solar capacity by 2030 from the current 18GW. This massive expansion presents significant opportunities for solar suppliers and installers.
- Rooftop Solar Revolution: A major focus is on unleashing a “rooftop revolution” across domestic, commercial, and public-sector buildings. This includes initiatives for new and existing homes through plans like the Warm Homes Plan and Future Homes and Buildings Standards, and exploring solar canopies on car parks.
- Electricity Network Reforms: The roadmap addresses challenges in electricity networks by streamlining connection processes for small-scale generation and ensuring fairness across transmission and distribution networks. Reforms are also in place to prioritise viable projects and improve transparency.
- Supply Chain and Innovation: Efforts are underway to ensure resilient, diverse, and sustainable supply chains. The government is committed to eradicating modern slavery in supply chains and exploring opportunities to support the development of standards for next-generation solar panels and emerging applications. An online directory for solar manufacturing businesses will also be created.
- Skills Development: The rapid growth of the solar industry is expected to create around 35,000 jobs by 2030, doubling current figures. The roadmap details actions to understand workforce requirements, make the sector attractive, and enable clear routes to competence through mapping training infrastructure, piloting careers fairs, and defining qualification pathways.
- Planning and Support Schemes: Reforms to the planning system will support rapid deployment, including increasing the threshold for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Planning (NSIP) for solar projects from 50MW to 100MW to expedite consenting. There’s also a £46 million investment in the planning system to boost capability and capacity.
- Collaboration and Community Benefits: The roadmap emphasises strong collaboration across organisations, industries, and communities. The government is proposing mandatory community benefit funds for low-carbon infrastructure projects, and industry will promote good practice guidance for community engagement.
This roadmap provides a clear direction for the UK to become a clean energy superpower, offering significant opportunities for growth and innovation within the solar sector.
To read the entire proposal, follow the link! – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/solar-roadmap
