On the fifth anniversary of the UK’s net zero commitment (27 July), the Mission Zero Coalition published its report At a Crossroads: Paths to a Net Zero Future.
The report outlines how Britain can stay on track to reach net zero and presents a roadmap for the government to be elected on July 4. It is the culmination of eleven sessions held by the Mission Zero Coalition’s Power Generation Network, gathering evidence from key stakeholders and policy experts.
The Mission Zero Coalition launched in March 2023 to build momentum Mission Zero Report written by ex-Conservative MP Chris Skidmore. He resigned as a politician in protest against the government’s Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill.
Skidmore launched the report at an event in London with Dan McGrail, CEO of Renewable UK. They were joined by a panel consisting of Katherine Bennett CBE, Chris Stark, Michelle Brechtelsbauer and Mark Owen-Lloyd.
Speaking at the launch, McGrail said: “Net zero is the economic opportunity of our generation. We need to move into an era of delivery – it’s all about delivery.”
He added that delivery must be consistent “almost to the point where it becomes a bit boring; it must be predictable.”
The Independent assessment of Net Zero identified ten priority missions for the period up to 2035 and highlighted numerous issues relating to clean energy generation in Britain. The government’s response, on March 30, 2023, came with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ) blueprint for the future of energy in the UK, Give Britain a boost.
It set a target of developing up to 50 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030 and increasing solar energy fivefold to 70 GW by 2035. Action to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy sources included opening an allocation round of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) programme.
A “generative economic opportunity”
According to the Mission Zero Coalition report, the UK’s journey to net zero is at a crossroads; The country’s climate leadership is being challenged by other countries and this “generative economic opportunity” could be slipping away.
It is argued that, as outlined in the Net Zero Review, delayed targets come at a high cost. The suggestion that achieving net zero quickly will be costly is “completely a false narrative.” Delaying the transition by ten years could cost 23% of debt to GDP by 2050.
McGrail commented: “Ofgem estimates that a net zero network would deliver £10 billion in savings for consumers by 2050, so the need to build a network that is fit for purpose to make the most of renewable energy sources , is as important for bill payers and our energy security as it is for our energy security. is for the planet. As the report states, the longer we wait to decarbonize, the more bill payers lose.”
Britain is five years away from meeting its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) pledge of a 68% emissions reduction. Labour’s commitment to a net-zero network is also only five years away, while the current commitment to decarbonise energy supplies by 2035 is only a decade away.
The waiting list for a grid connection is the longest ever, with connection delays expected until early 2030. The number of building permits for renewable energy projects is also too low and too many applications are being blocked. Despite 350 local authorities passing motions declaring a climate emergency, more than 70 of these have actively blocked renewable energy projects totaling 4.4 GW, including battery storage projects that could have stored up to 680 MW of renewable energy.
To this end, At a Crossroads: Paths to a Net Zero Future explains what needs to be achieved in the next hundred days of a new government, in the first year of that government and in the course of a parliament. It presents the following pathways to a net-zero network:
- Balanced supply and demand
- An attractive investment climate
- An efficient and democratic planning system
- A sufficient flow of skilled workers
- A data-driven and digitalized energy system.
Five pathways to achieving a net-zero network
Network capacity has been consistently cited by trade bodies and energy companies as a major barrier in the run-up to the general election. Small-scale generation such as domestic solar energy allows consumers to become prosumers.
Across all generation technologies, there are barriers to the UK energy system becoming predominantly powered by renewable energy sources and accelerating the scale required to meet expected increased demand for electricity.
The report highlights the lengthy process of bringing a project online, even before generating it. The key phases are identified as early development and planning, application and receipt of planning or consent and connection to the electricity grid, construction and operation, and decommissioning. During these phases, financing and seeking investments are critical.
Balanced supply and demand
System flexibility is necessary to balance supply and demand. Interestingly, the report envisions that nuclear power could fill the role that oil and gas currently fill by providing frequency regulation. Co-location and off-grid energy generation will optimize network use.
The report states: “A generation that does not put additional pressure on transmission networks and grid capacity is also an important area for creating a balanced and flexible system.”
It calls for an accelerated rollout of storage systems, citing government-commissioned modeling published in 2024 that showed deploying up to 20GW of long-term storage could deliver £24 billion in savings by 2050.
To reach critical mass, storage must be affordable not only for large-scale users, but also for SMBs and on a domestic scale.
Market design
According to the report, current market design encourages interconnectors and storage to flow in directions that exacerbate network constraints. Electricity market arrangements do not maximize the potential for flexibility, with current market signals not fully reflecting system needs, underlined by an increasingly fragmented policy framework.
Currently the distribution network costs around £90 annually for the average domestic customer and is largely a passive network, but there is potential to unlock more dynamic markets in this area.
From an investor perspective, Britain has a relatively strong track record of attracting private investment. Since 2010, almost £200 billion of public and private investment has been channeled into low-carbon sectors through a supportive policy environment.
The government’s Net Zero Strategy states that £280 to 400 billion of additional investment is needed to decarbonise the energy sector by 2035. However, the current policy guideline lacks a clear priority.
Efficiency of planning processes
Mark Owen-Lloyd, director of Photovolt Development Partners and part of the project team working to develop an 840MW solar power plant in Oxfordshire, said at the launch that Britain has historically been an attractive space for expansion and investment. However, the Designated Consent Order (DCO) process has become dangerously slow, from about two years from start to finish to eight years.
He said we shouldn’t underestimate the effect the timescale has on the people who take the risk: they will go somewhere else. Consistency and steadfastness of policy are really very important.”
Achieving this requires an efficient and democratic planning consent process that promotes community involvement and benefits. The implementation and delivery of a net-zero network, whether in 2030 or 2035, faces the same challenge: gaining public and community support for the disruption and changes required to transform the electricity grid.
The report says that while it makes recommendations on how legislative planning frameworks can be changed, additional attention is needed to build popular support for the energy transition.
“Community engagement and community benefit go hand in hand, and conversations with local communities must be bilateral, sustainable and responsive,” the report says.
A skilled workforce
Estimates from National Grid suggest that more than 400,000 jobs will need to be recruited to achieve a net zero energy workforce by 2050. Emphasis is placed on the need to look at skills requirements across the supply chain, not just the ‘front line’. ‘.
The report identifies the following challenges in meeting skills demand: competition over collaboration, a fragmented skills landscape, a lack of cross-sector coherence, the inability of training providers to invest in emerging skills, traditional training pathways that do not respond quickly enough to needs , and a lack of clear progression paths.
In the first year, the government should establish clearly defined career paths for solar, wind and nuclear energy, which already exist for oil and gas.
A data-driven and digitalized energy system
The report identifies the benefits of a data-driven and digitalized energy system: Digital technologies can help integrate increasing shares of variable renewable technologies and improve the reliability of the electricity grid.
Digitalization is especially important if the goal is to quickly increase the percentage of wind and solar energy, where peak production may not match demand.
However, currently the data is stored in silos, limiting its capabilities. Concerns around cybersecurity and finding the right balance between openness and security are core issues that need to be addressed.
For the Mission Zero Coalition, the ultimate benefit of accelerating net zero is the economic potential. As Skidmore recently said at the UK Solar Summit: “Regardless of who is in government, it will be under their leadership that we need to see CO2 emissions fall; CO2 has no political colours.”
The report concludes: “The driving force must be a need for speed. Without a focus on sustainable and consistent delivery of energy projects that will lead to a net zero network, Britain risks being unable to keep pace with electricity demand and the ability of the entire economy to reach net zero and not just the energy supply.”
This article was originally published on our sister site Current±.