Expert urges incoming government to commit to short-term support for solar

Writing in The Scotsman, energy expert Ronan Lambe of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that now was a "crucial period" for the technology, with cost of energy and security of supply some of the biggest issues for the political parties ahead of June's general election.

"Solar has, over the last decade, demonstrated an ability to deliver a considerable proportion of our energy requirements in a clean and green way, supported by the public and at a cost which continues to fall," he said.

"Issues such as intermittency are being reduced as a result of the emergence of storage and the potential for co-location with other technologies ... With political focus so squarely on cost of energy, will the next government be brave enough to support this industry in its hour of need before an eagerly anticipated new dawn?" he said.

UK solar deployment has risen rapidly over the past decade, to almost 12GW of operational generating capacity. However, this only accounts for around 3.4% of Great Britain's total electricity consumption. By comparison, in Germany, around 41.2GW of operational solar provides around 15.8% of the country's electricity consumption.

However, Lambe said that the recent end to subsidies for new large-scale solar in Great Britain, following the transition from the Renewables Obligation (RO) to the contracts for difference (CfD) subsidy regime had dramatically slowed the development of new large-scale solar projects, such as solar parks.

Solar parks may be commercial developments which sell the electricity produced to an 'offtaker', such as a utility, via the National Grid; or an arrangement by a developer to sell the electricity produced directly to a large consumer, such as a factory or data centre. Under the second type of arrangement, the developer may receive an attractive fixed rate for the generated electricity and any excess may be sold to a third party via the National Grid.

Pinsent Masons has acted on a number of deals involving the second type of arrangement. Most recently, it advised a consortium of WElink Energy, Compton Group and British Solar Renewables on the recent sale of Shotwick Solar Park, which closed in February. Shotwick, in North Wales, is the UK's largest operational solar park and supplies electricity to the adjacent Shotton Paper Works through a private wire agreement.

According to Lambe, solar projects have a number of advantages over other forms of renewable electricity generation. In particular, they tend to encounter fewer planning issues as they are "considered to have fewer environmental and visual impacts", and can be constructed in comparably short periods of time. Projects are noise-free, non-waste generating and usually allow for dual purpose of the land, meaning that farmers leasing land for solar parks can often continue to graze certain livestock, Lambe said. The land can also be returned to its previous use relatively easily at the end of the solar park's operational life.

Although solar power does have its downsides due to the need for sunlight to convert to electricity, these issues "are increasingly being countered by the emergence of energy storage technologies" as well as the potential for co-location of solar with other renewable technologies, such as onshore wind, Lambe said.

"Combined with storage, such co-location has the potential to address intermittency issues encountered with renewable technologies, i.e. electricity only being available when the wind blows or sun shines," he said.

Energy storage expert Becca Aspinwall of Pinsent Masons said recently that the incoming government should consider incentivising the adoption of solar panels and battery storage technologies by private householders as a means of cutting fuel poverty. The technology has the potential to enable homeowners to generate enough electricity to power their own homes and even sell excess electricity generated and stored to others in their area through localised virtual networks, she said.