Understanding the landscape for change
Here, we summarise the key outcomes from our round table, highlighting what South West businesses need to know in order to decarbonise, reduce their reliance on traditional energy sources and move towards net zero.
Metro Mayor Dan Norris agreed that we need to collectively achieve a 10% year-on-year reduction in CO2 to meet net zero targets, noting that people across the South West are “way ahead of the politicians when it comes to the environment” and are “probably the most astute when it comes to the environment anywhere in the country”.
By understanding the barriers that exist for suppliers, businesses and residents when it comes to reducing emissions, we’re able to find solutions that work for everyone, making our collective transition to net zero more straightforward and more achievable.
When we’re aiming to introduce clean energy and transport options, we have to start with the suppliers.
In the South West, our existing grid infrastructure simply isn’t fit to manage the demand and support a distributed supply of renewable energy; Peter Capener explained that we need to allow grid operators to invest what is required to upgrade the grid if we are to reach the 2030 Net Zero targets set by our towns and cities, as well as to attract inward investment, skills and talent to our region. Lee Chadwick also noted that “grid lead times are a huge restriction at the moment” when it comes to installing new solar PV infrastructure.
Ensuring the grid is robust enough to switch to renewable energy as soon as possible is critical to not just the climate crisis, but to the wider economy and prosperity of the South West.
With the national grid not currently capable of taking excess feed-in energy generated by solar panels, much of the energy generated by businesses is currently being wasted as it cannot be exported back to the grid.
As production across supply chains are impacted by both the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, lead times for equipment like solar PV panels have been severely delayed, meaning that it’s getting harder for suppliers to keep up with demand.
Stuart Urquhart noted that “there are a set of very outdated rules which govern the licensing of electricity and the circumstances in which you don’t need a licence to supply electricity.” This makes it harder for suppliers to introduce new and greener solutions to the market, and requires government action to make it easier for projects to move ahead.