The UK’s energy system is undergoing a significant change. A decade ago the UK relied on a small number of very large fossil fuel and nuclear plants. This has changed rapidly and the UK has seen massive deployment of renewable technologies, which now contribute a significant proportion of the energy consumed annually.

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This revolution will continue, backed by strong government and international policy to tackle climate change and move the UK to a greener economy. The UK is the global leader with its Net Zero by 2050 policy, which will require the substantial deployment of renewable energy as polluting generators are taken offline and energy demand increases with the electrification of the economy.

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The government white paper ’Powering our Net Zero Future’ released in December 2020 has reinforced the extremely strong policy support for the sector, with the paper setting out that up to 120GW of solar is required to meet the Net Zero target. This echoes analysis published by the Committee on Climate Change, which estimated that between 75-90GW of solar capacity will be needed to meet net zero. The National Infrastructure Commission, meanwhile, has estimated that 121GW will be needed. This requires considerable further deployment of solar, and other renewable technologies.

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Significant reductions in the cost of equipment and technology improvements, mean solar is now able to compete with nuclear and fossil fuels power generation, without the need for any subsidy. With this tipping point having been reached, we are beginning to see a future where renewable energy provides 100% of the UK’s energy needs. Anglo Renewables is deploying solar farms to meet this need.