The majority of UK renewable energy projects do not progress beyond the planning stage

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The majority of UK onshore renewable energy projects do not progress beyond the planning stage, according to an analysis which highlights the challenges the country still faces in meeting its clean energy targets.

According to Cornwall Insight, an energy consultancy, 63 percent of the approximately 4,000 applications submitted for wind, solar and battery projects between 2018 and 2023 have been refused, abandoned, withdrawn or have had their building permits expired.

A further 18 per cent have been returned for review, leaving just a fifth of projects awaiting a planning decision or ready to be built.

Both the Conservative and Labor parties have promised planning reforms ahead of the July 4 general election, with the Tories promising to cut the usual time it takes to sign off major infrastructure projects from four years to one.

“The UK has set ambitious targets to increase renewable energy capacity,” said Lucy Dolton, asset and infrastructure manager at Cornwall Insight. “These figures show a substantial shortfall in achieving these targets, largely driven by the slow pace of progress in implementing renewable energy projects.”

The findings, shared with the Financial Times, come as Britain is under pressure to rapidly increase renewable energy capacity to meet its legally binding target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and decarbonize the electricity system well before then.

The low number of successful projects partly reflects a wave of speculative applications, Cornwall Insight researchers said, as developers submit multiple plans with the expectation that not all projects will succeed.

Developers complain that the planning system does not have enough resources to cope with the rising number of applications, while long waits for connections to the electricity grid can delay the progress of projects through the approval process.

Nathan Bennett, from trade group RenewableUK, added: “There is a UK challenge around funding, a lack of people able to process consents in a timely manner.”

The analysis, which covers England, Scotland and Wales, showed a sharp annual increase in the number of planning applications for renewable projects in recent years, with 66 percent more applications in 2023 than in 2022.

Regionally, 37 percent of battery projects applying for planning permission in the Northwest were awaiting a decision or were ready to be built, compared to 19 percent in the Southeast. For solar energy projects in the southwest this was 68 percent.

The Labor Party, which has a lead of around 20 points in opinion polls, wants to double onshore wind capacity, triple solar capacity and quadruple offshore wind capacity by 2030 to meet its interim target of decarbonising the electricity system by then. The Conservatives want to decarbonise the electricity system by 2035.

Labor has promised to “make major projects faster and cheaper by cutting red tape and hiring 300 planning officers. More than 3,000 people left the profession between 2010 and 2020.

The Conservatives have also pledged to reform “outdated EU red tape” and “end frivolous legal challenges” to development.

National Grid and other electricity grid owners have tried to speed up the queue for grid connections. National Grid’s electricity system operator said its latest proposals could halve the size of the queue. The government declined to comment.