“Targets are useful, as they help to focus minds. The approach that we take in the UK very much focuses on that certainty,” said Sulaiman Ilyas-Jarret at Solar Media’s Renewable Energy Revenues Summit in London this morning.
Ilyas-Jarret, head of policy and strategy for renewable delivery at the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, led the discussion at the event’s first panel and suggested that clarity and coherence from a government is an integral part of installing renewable capacity on the scale necessary to meet the world’s decarbonisation targets.
“[We aim to give] some of that forward vision about where we want to get to,” said Ilyas-Jarret. “Targets are useful, as they help to focus minds. There are other systems, like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the US, that are little more generous but [offer] less certainty.”
The speakers also discussed some of the challenges associated with meeting the scale of these targets, with Francis Mann, senior government affairs manager for Northern Europe at Lightsource bp, describing the UK power planning infrastructure as “on its knees,” as regulators struggle to keep up with the volume of new renewable power permits being applied for.
Jemma Couchman, a partner at Cameron Barney suggested that uncertainty around grid availability could discourage future renewable investments, as uncertainty can lead to a perception of renewables as a riskier investment.
“It can be quite frustrating that an estimated date and cost isn’t really kept to,” said Couchman. “It can produce quite a few tricky conversations with lenders, to make sure we can get those cases banked.”
Full coverage of the panel is available on PV Tech.
Current±’s publisher Solar Media is hosting the Renewable Energy Revenues Summit on 21-23 May 2024 in London. The event will explore PPA design, the role of effective policy, evolving strategies for large energy buyers and more. For more information, go to the website.
