Guess who's going to miss their green targets?
That would be the UK, in the latest proof that no matter how many billions you throw at wind turbines, solar panels, and flywheels, you need to throw billions more for infrastructure, read batteries, and somehow accelerated grid connections that are currently, it appears, discouraging some investors from going all in on panels and turbines.
The shocking insight comes from Cornwall, um, Insight, which warned this week the UK was set to be 16 GW short of its 2030 target in solar, 10 GW short of its target in onshore wind, and “just” 6 GW short of its target in offshore wind. Yet there is not even a slightest suggestion that those 2030 targets were unrealistic.
On the contrary, Cornwall Insight is grimly warning that “Grid connection delays, supply chain constraints, and uncertainty surrounding electricity market reforms are all creating a challenging environment for developers. Without swift and decisive action to resolve these issues, the UK risks falling significantly behind its clean power ambitions.”
Those clean power ambitions, by the way, were set out in something called Clean Power 2030: Action Plan, which is a more horrific than “It” and “50 Shades of Gray” taken together. It features investments of “an estimated £40 billion on average per year between 2025-2030” and “Around twice as much new transmission network infrastructure […] in the nation’s grid by 2030 as has been built in the past decade.” All totally doable, of course, hence the likely surprise at Cornwall Insight’s insight.
It really is doable. All it would take is to start approving new wind and solar projects automatically, with zero assessments of any nature, also start connecting them to the grid the instant they are completed, with zero consideration of whether the grid can or cannot handle the new intermittent capacity, and building lots and lots and lots of batteries. That’s it. That’s how simple it is. Then we can all sit back and watch the UK economy and society crumble in on itself, leaving just a few broken turbines and burning batteries while survivors foraging for food between the panels.