Analyst Jonty Haynes presents a graphical bulletin, exploring the growing pipeline of ground-mounted solar projects in the UK.
Recently, each electricity distribution network operator published a System Wide Resource Register, revealing the scale of the pipeline of solar farms.
The capacity of projects with accepted connections now exceeds the capacity of existing installations. The majority of these connection offers have been accepted within the last twelve months.
The capacity of ‘accepted-not-yet-connected’ ground-mounted solar PV totals above 7 GW, exceeding the 6.6 GW of connected solar farms listed in the system wide resource registers. This is in clear contrast to the last few years, with less than 500 MW of ground-mounted solar PV deployed since the end of 2016.
With subsidy-free solar comes changes in the scale of solar farms. The majority of pipeline projects exceed 20 MW in size, with several proposed sites boasting capacities above 50 MW or even 100 MW.
It remains to be seen whether the larger scale of upcoming solar farms leads to an increased failure rate at the planning stage – especially in light of the climate emergency, and the UK’s legally binding net zero obligation.
The full graphical bulletin can be found here.
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Author:
Jonty Haynes