The latest energy reforms and their impact on the energy storage market

One of the first – and very welcome – moves was to remove the de facto ban on onshore wind developments. This will help derisk projects and encourage the further investment into wind required to reach the UK’s goals.

In my opinion, the immediate greenlighting of some very large solar farms is more controversial. It makes a lot of sense for the Government to own and manage green energy assets. However, projects being rushed through planning, against the recommendations of planning officers for ecological and landscaping concerns is not a positive move. What we need is appropriately sized, quality solar farms with the ability to connect to the grid; more wind and more energy storage.

From experience, planning consent isn’t the biggest barrier to deployment – grid connections are. This is one of the biggest challenges which the country faces in meeting net zero goals. If we are to speed up the acceleration of quality renewables projects, then the lack of grid connection is where the government should start.

I hope we will see some firm announcements surrounding this which recognise and bring investment into the network to support the move to a more distributed energy system.

Government and network operators, and industry, are now well aware of the relative dispatch profiles of BESS and renewable generation, and the opportunity that co-location with storage can bring. Hopefully, policy will encourage further co-location.

Changes to BESS derating and Balancing Mechanism dispatch are also very welcome and positive. This is an acknowledgement that batteries have proven to be a more reliable source of capacity in the market.

Whilst I wouldn’t be so bold to say that every solar project should have co-located batteries, battery energy storage should be considered seriously in any new plans. As a key enabler of renewable-energy generation, energy storage can make a huge contribution to meeting net zero targets by balancing the intermittency of renewables and turning solar and wind into baseload generators.