Simon Tarr and Ben Thompson, talks about the UK’s electrical grid infrastructure in Place North West’s latest episode of the COP26 podcast series.
Listen to the podcast to find out more, and for more insights from Simon and Ben’s take a look at our article below.
The Government has set a target that all renewable electricity should come from clean energy sources by 2035. To do this we would need to double our existing renewable energy generation. For that power to go into the grid network we need the infrastructure to get it into our homes and available for use, and at the moment that infrastructure is not there.
Policy and cash investment is urgently needed to enable the sufficient capacity. It’s been an issue for many years.
There is no obvious and easy answer to salvaging the grid short of rebuilding it which isn’t commercially viable.
Developers are constantly having to explore alternatives to grid connection to overcome the issues such as a private wire to the development from a renewable energy source, but this is simply putting a sticking plaster over the issue and is not going to help us to achieve these government targets, or resolve any of the capacity issues in the grid itself.
The way the grid is upgraded currently is very piecemeal, small pieces are updated for a specific development, there is not enough long term thinking. The onus is also on the developer to pay for it in relation to their specific development.
We need to collaborate to focus and prioritise the grid.
The private sector does not expect the government or public to pay for all of it, they have been investing already, but the process needs to change for it to work more effectively. A collaborative approach is needed so companies can band together and invest and share the cost, if we can do this then the future is bright.
The industry is full of skilled and innovative people who want to make this happen, but we need the backing of government policy.
This podcast was first published on the Place North West website here.
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