Why the UK’s planning update is so welcome

Britain has made great strides in decarbonising its energy mix, with electricity supply carbon emissions falling more than three-quarters since 1990. Boris Johnson’s administration pledged to get all UK electricity from clean sources by 2035, a feat that would make the country a global climate leader.  

More recently, the new Labour government has doubled down on this ambition with moves such as a push for long-duration energy storage, the fast-tracking of development consent orders for 500 MW-plus battery systems and massive support for carbon capture projects.

The problem is that this ambition is reliant on a creaking planning process that was not fit for the transition to a low-carbon energy system. 

Having English planning rules that allowed a single complaint to nix an entire project has effectively paralysed development of onshore wind, one of the most cost-effective sources of clean electricity on the planet. Other clean energy infrastructure also faces major hurdles in gaining planning consent. 

Because of this, independent bodies such as the Climate Change Committee have been sounding the alarm over Britain’s ability to achieve its climate goals. 

In June 2023, the Committee said the UK had lost its climate leadership position, and in December Friends of the Earth said the country would miss its emissions targets by a wide margin. In March this year, the High Court told the government to redraft emissions reduction plans that did not go far enough to guarantee hitting targets. 

It is against this backdrop that environmental groups and the clean energy industry celebrated the Labour government’s decision in July to drop what chancellor Rachel Reeves said were “absurd” restrictions on onshore wind. 

At the same time, the new government has opened a consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system. There are several reasons to celebrate this move. 

The first and most obvious is that, as noted by the Climate Change Committee, Friends of the Earth and others, the UK simply cannot hit its targets with the current planning system. This is important from a global perspective, since every country must do everything possible to avert widespread damage to the Earth’s climate. 

But it is also important in terms of competitiveness, since countries that cannot demonstrate climate leadership risk falling behind as the rest of the world engages with the energy transition. 

After leaving the European Union, the UK’s export capacity is said to have failed to live up to its former potential—so why harm things further by hampering progress in a global energy transition that could see $35 trillion in investment by 2030?

Beyond these environmental and economic considerations, there is a commonsense reason for seeking a reform of the planning system, based on technology development.

Under the current rules, any wind or solar project of more than 50 MW (or less in Wales and Northern Ireland) is deemed significant enough to require an extended planning process, likely involving ministerial approval. 

This may have made sense when the rules were made, since a 50 MW wind or solar farm was expected to cover a sizeable area of land. Back in 2008, when the regulations were introduced, a 50 MW onshore wind farm would have required at least 33 wind turbines with an average nameplate capacity of around 1.5 MW apiece. 

Now, however, the capacity of onshore wind generators has roughly tripled, with the average power rating of onshore turbines installed across Europe in 2023 standing at 4.5 MW. Hence, you could exceed the 50 MW project limit with just a dozen turbines. 

Improvements have been less marked in the solar industry, monocrystalline modules achieving just over 19% efficiency in 2008 and about 21.4% today. Nevertheless, it is clear you can produce more energy with less impact today than you could a decade and a half ago. 

What will be new planning rules for clean energy in the UK?

Energy Security and Net-Zero Secretary Ed Miliband aims to take this into account with a proposal to double the capacity that a wind farm owner can install before a project falls into the ‘nationally significant’ class, so developers can put up to 100 MW into the ground before being subject to greater restrictions. 

For solar, the threshold will be tripled, to 150 MW, likely reflecting the fact that such plants often have lower visual impact than wind farms. If approved, these changes will help avoid a situation that has arisen so far whereby developers would plan projects of just under 50 MW to avoid being strangled with paperwork. 

Relaxing the rules for much larger projects makes a lot of sense in the context of today’s technology and should help developers install new capacity at a rate that could help put the UK back on course to meet its climate commitments. 

It could also help bring down the overall costs of the electricity system since larger projects tend to be more cost-effective. Compared to two 50 MW projects, a single 100 MW project will have roughly half the amount of civil engineering, balance of plant and other costs—and the planning time and effort will be halved, too.

The government’s consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework was expected to run until September 2024, and at Pacific Green, we handed in our response. We have also assembled a team to look at how to deliver new wind and repowering projects once the new rules have been confirmed.  

We are drawing on development experience in Scotland, which has not been restricted by the effective moratorium of the last 10 years and consequently has seen onshore wind becoming the biggest source of renewable energy by far, accounting for an almost 63% share in the third quarter of 2023. 

It is largely thanks to this vast buildout, which equates to almost 9.6 GW of onshore wind capacity, that Scotland was already able to meet 97% of its electricity demand through renewable sources in 2020. 

If the rest of the UK wants to also go down this route, as it is legally obliged to do, then clearly it makes sense to take learnings from the Scots’ ability to recognise the potential and build an appropriate policy into the planning process for all renewables—and onshore wind in particular.