The UK risks missing its solar deployment targets because most homes and small businesses still find it too expensive to fit rooftop systems, MPs have warned.
The cross-party Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has warned Energy Security and Net-Zero Secretary Grant Shapps that the UK is likely to miss its 2035 target of hosting 70GW of solar by a “considerable” margin without “urgent” action.
The target was set in March after first being recommended in January through Chris Skidmore MP’s Net-Zero Review. The Government is in the process of setting up a solar industry taskforce to plot a pathway to delivering this target.
In the meantime, the EAC has expressed concerns about slow progress in addressing some of the key barriers to solar deployment in the UK.
Chief among these concerns are delays in grid connection, resulting from a cumbersome planning process. In some cases, customers are having to wait 10 to 15 years to secure a connection for solar installations, the EAC has heard. Delays plague both utility-scale solar farms and small-scale arrays.
The Committee is calling on Shapps to press forward with a net-zero remit for Ofgem, as recommended in the Net-Zero Review. It is also recommending collaboration between the Government, National Grid and electricity distribution network operators to “unblock the pipeline of delays” and to plot a way of improving the grid in the long-term.
Read more: edie
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