On Thursday, Parliament returns for the second reading of the GB Energy Bill. It’s an opportunity to find out more about the government’s plans for renewables.
For Brighton Energy (and Community Energy in general), one thing stands out:Â while solar capacity grew 16% in 2023 (which is obviously great), the lack of solar on certain sizes of rooftop remains an open goal.
Here’s the problem: if we look at which bits of the solar sector are growing, we find the lowest growth (in fact virtually none) has occurred in the 50kw – 5MW capacity bracket (see the bits highlighted by the red discs below):
(data from assets.gov.uk )
As this is pretty much the sweet spot for community solar, this is obviously a problem.
The question
Ed Miliband has a stated ambition to treble solar capacity. Secretary of State for Net Zero Micheal Shanks says he wants to “bring together community ownership with smaller-scale generation.”
But given that the 50Kw – 5MW bracket is experiencing the lowest growth in the solar market, what is being done to help both communities and businesses to go solar at this scale?
If you feel moved to write to your MP and ask them to ask this question in the House on Thursday – I’d be most grateful.
Best
Will, Brighton Energy
