What you need to know about the current energy market in Yorkshire

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 28th, 2024 at 1:38 pm

The new Government has promised to bring forward energy projects and to resolve the planning and grid delays that are holding up projects up and down the country. One of Ed Miliband’s first actions as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero was to accept 3 applications for large scale solar projects in Lincolnshire, Rutland and Suffolk. This sent the right message but the grid delays are much more sensitive and require an enormous amount of funding and resource which this Government simply does not have at its disposal. A plan is in place to speed these connections up but we have seen little to date to show that this plan is working.

As an update on the various technologies, we will talk you through the trends that we are seeing currently in the Yorkshire energy market:

1. Solar

• Small (10-25 acre) projects which tend to be direct to end users, such as factories or data centres, are popular. These projects do not rely on grid connections so in theory should be quicker to deliver. Often developers will open conversations with the landowner at the same time as opening conversations with the end user so their approach to the landowner is not always an approach with any substance.
• We are seeing some existing District Network Operator (Northern Powergrid) projects come to fruition but the majority of new approaches now seem to be for large-scale National Grid connected projects which are multi-landowner and covering large acreages of 1,000 acres +.
  • These projects are generally based around the large National Grid substations.
  • Developers tend to look in 200-400 acre blocks.
  • If you are being approached, these projects should already have a grid connection. Any new connection to a National Grid substation is likely to now be after 2036.

2. Battery

• Most of these that we see are large scale projects adjacent (or in very close proximity to) National Grid substations.
• We are seeing a number of very large-scale projects which sound, initially, farfetched. These connections do exist and storage is required in huge quantities for the move to Net Zero.

3. Private Substations

• We are seeing developers looking to connect into the overhead lines and construct their own substations. This then unlocks connections for battery or solar projects. The scale of these projects is enormous to justify the huge expense of the new substation.
• These projects still require consent from National Grid so are still subject to their lengthy timescales.

4. Wind

• One of the Labour government’s key straplines on the energy market was the re-opening of onshore wind. In our area, we have seen a bit of this but developers have not got overexcited by the prospect.

5. Anaerobic Digestion

• There are a number of companies around Yorkshire looking at this on a large-scale. A landowner is required to host the plant but a huge amount of product is required for each of these plants and there are likely to be growing opportunities available.

6. Other Technologies

• We have seen a host of new opportunities for our landowners over and above the technologies referred to above. The energy market remains a relatively new and evolving market.

Do get in touch and we would be happy to assist in navigating you through the process, whether simple or complex – we have seen it all!

Johnny Cordingley MRICS FAAV

T: 07792 427 232

E: jc@stephenson.co.uk