\n<\/p>\n
Labour has a race on its hands if it is to lock in its promise to achieve a virtually zero-carbon electricity system by 2030.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s next prime minister will have to move fast: the climate emergency is raging, high energy bills are driving up the cost of living and the reactionary right is threatening a fossil fuel push if it wins power.<\/p>\n
In the party\u2019s first two years in office it approved new renewable energy projects at double the rate the Conservatives did in their last two years, a Guardian data analysis found.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s stopping this turning into cheap power? Let\u2019s take a deep dive.<\/p>\n
With so many hurdles between approval and operation, it is unsurprising that two years since Labour was elected many question whether it can hit the target of generating 95% of electricity from zero-carbon sources by 2030.<\/p>\n
Just months after that landslide, Fintan Slye, the boss of the government\u2019s energy system operator, Neso, told the Guardian the clean power promise was \u201cat the outer limit of what\u2019s achievable\u201d, but doable \u201cif you\u2019re prepared to do things differently and to take difficult decisions early on\u201d.<\/p>\n
Swift action, such as lifting the Tories\u2019 effective onshore wind development ban in week one, has borne impressive results. A record number of renewable energy projects received the go-ahead last year, after planning approvals almost doubled year on year amid a shake-up of the system to favour infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n
Neso has also reformed the queue for renewable developers to secure a grid connection, clearing hundreds of dubious \u201czombie\u201d projects \u2013 those without the right planning permissions or financing to move forward \u2013 to make way for schemes with the best chance of delivering on time.<\/p>\n
This has paid dividends, with figures last month revealing that since the start of the year 700 wind, solar, hydro and battery storage projects \u2013 many of which faced a decade-long wait to connect to the grid under the previous \u201cfirst come, first served\u201d system \u2013 had been offered a connection date before 2030. That accounts for more than half the renewable energy projects needed to meet the 2030 goal.<\/p>\n
Still, the Guardian\u2019s analysis suggests this pace may still be too slow. Industry experts agree. Analysts at Cornwall Insight have warned that hitting the target would require a near flawless delivery of some of the most complex infrastructure projects the UK has ever undertaken, which would be impossible once \u201creal world\u201d risks are taken into account.<\/p>\n
Research by consultants at LCP Delta this week found Great Britain\u2019s clean electricity could meet 83% of demand by 2030, falling short of the official target of 95%. This may only be achievable by 2035 under the current rate of progress, it said.<\/p>\n
While progress on renewables has already removed coal from the system, gas still plays a key role in balancing demand when the sun does not shine and the wind fails to blow, and made up nearly 27% of total electricity generation last year.<\/p>\n
The 2030 target is a manifesto commitment, meaning Andy Burnham is unlikely to retreat from it if he succeeds Keir Starmer as prime minister, as is widely expected \u2013 especially with the current energy secretary, net-zero champion Ed Miliband, tipped to stay in the cabinet.<\/p>\n
Yet even if the country fails to achieve it, the energy system will have \u201cundergone a profound transformation\u201d by the end of the decade, according to LCP Delta.<\/p>\n
\u201cRenewable capacity is set to provide over 70% of our power needs in just a few years, weaning the country off volatile international gas markets whilst halving the power sector carbon emissions compared to 2025,\u201d said the consultancy\u2019s head of UK market strategy, Sam Hollister.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor consumers, one of the biggest benefits will be greater protection from external gas price shocks. A cleaner power system means lower reliance on gas, helping to shield households from the kind of price volatility seen during recent energy crises while benefiting the climate,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Tom Edwards, principal modeller at Cornwall Insight, said: \u201cContinuing to make strong progress on the clean energy rollout is vital, not only to build a more secure energy system, but also to make energy more affordable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nearer a power system gets to clean, the fewer hours gas sets the wholesale price, that matters most when prices spike and markets turn volatile, and households will feel it directly on their bills, whether we hit the 2030 target or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
For energy developers like SSE, the owner and operator of the Viking windfarm, the existence of a target is more important in mobilising multibillion-pound investment plans than whether the target is ultimately achieved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives businesses the confidence to invest for the long term,\u201d a spokesperson said, adding that the company was putting \u00a333bn into grids and homegrown energy.<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson said: \u201cIn the face of the second fossil fuel crisis of this decade, the answer is clear: we need to go further and faster for clean, homegrown power we control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Data on renewable energy capacity at each stage of the planning pipeline is sourced from the Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD). Projects that have been marked as abandoned or have had planning permission expire have been removed.<\/p>\n
In addition, the REPD only covered projects with an installed capacity of 1MW until 2021 and then 150kW since then. This means some smaller renewable projects \u2013 particularly micro solar installations \u2013 are not covered.<\/p>\n
However, we have also sourced installed wind and solar capacity from the government\u2019s Energy Trends dataset. This was used to construct operational capacity over time and has been combined with REPD figures in our planning pipeline breakdowns to compensate for the REPD\u2019s minimum threshold. Data is up to March 2026.<\/p>\n
To calculate project approvals under Labour v the Conservative government, we totalled approvals in REPD during the first 21 months of Labour (from July 2024 to March 2026 inclusive) and the final 21 months of the Conservative government (from October 2022 to July 2024).<\/p>\n
Data on projects that have been offered a grid connection has been sourced from the Energy Networks Association, which is tracking the progress of the government\u2019s changes to grid connections. The most recent figures are up to 1 July 2026.<\/p>\n
Experts from Barbour and Cornwall Insight provided insight and expertise on the renewable energy pipeline.<\/p>\n
While the government targets are presented as a range in its Clean Power 2030 action plan, the Guardian\u2019s visuals uses the midpoint of these ranges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Labour has a race on its hands if it is to lock in its promise to achieve a virtually zero-carbon electricity system by 2030. Britain\u2019s next prime minister will have to move fast: the climate emergency is raging, high energy bills are driving up the cost of living and the reactionary right is threatening a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[3892,1206,7325,611,728,1545,3508,1500,7035],"class_list":{"0":"post-50907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-cheap","11":"tag-energy","12":"tag-green","13":"tag-industry","14":"tag-revolution","15":"tag-turn","16":"tag-visual"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}