“Even though the FIT had gone, I was pretty sure I could make solar energy cheaper than other sources.”

The recent government commitment to introduce legally binding targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the UK to net zero by 2050 marks a seminal moment for green policy. As environmental concerns continue to dominate the political agenda, the momentum behind renewable and sustainable energy only looks set to increase.

This latest pledge paves the way for the UK to strengthen its medium-term emissions targets and introduce a raft of new policies to engineer a step change in the pace of decarbonisation. And perhaps as importantly, it sends the clearest signal yet to businesses and investors that meaningful strategies to address climate change over the next three decades are now non-negotiable.

Toddington Harper, chief executive of sustainable energy company Gridserve, is cautiously optimistic about the implications on the renewable energy sector of the announcement, although on the day we speak, the sun is shining, which gives Harper more cause than most to feel upbeat, given Gridserve’s mission to develop, build and operate solar energy and energy storage solutions for critical power infrastructure.

You could say that solar energy is in his blood. A 17-year veteran of the sustainable energy industry, Harper grew up in the Middle East where his father ran a solar energy and battery business, and where he witnessed first-hand the commercial benefits of using renewable energy to replace diesel generators.

Fair to say, the solar industry has undergone a massive transition since Harper first cut his teeth. More recently the end of feed-in tariffs (FIT) changed the dynamics of the sector and prompted many solar businesses to exit the market (the government has since announced an alternative scheme, the Smart Export Guarantee).

Regardless, the falling cost of solar and energy storage technology have provided the underlying business case for Gridserve’s operations, Harper says.

“Over the course of around five years, costs have reduced by more than 80 per cent, to the extent that solar energy is now a low-cost form of energy. So even though the FIT had gone, I was pretty sure I could make energy cheaper than other sources. There had to be a business case somewhere.” That business case hinged on making energy more useful. “Because the cost of lithium ion batteries had fallen so much, we’d reached that point in ­history where we could combine the two.”

Gridserve’s 30-plus staff have been responsible for the development, construction, and operation of more than a gigawatt of solar energy and energy storage solutions, including connecting over 100 utility-scale sustainable energy projects to the UK grid in the past five years.

Ongoing advancements in solar technology continue to increase the efficiency of panels at a time when their cost has pretty much reached rock bottom, Harper says. The combination of bifacial panels – transparent with cells etched on both sides – and solar trackers that re-orientate to follow the sun, offers significant energy generation benefits over their traditional static photovoltaic panels, which generate the most energy at midday when there’s also the greatest compression of prices as everyone else feeds into the grid. “It means you get much more even generation throughout the day, and it reduces the risk of price volatility,” Harper explains.

With most solar farms earning their income through their grid connection, and with that connection commonly up to full capacity just 10-15 per cent of the time, the addition of on-site energy storage in the form of 30MWH batteries offers the ability to pull energy off the grid as well as put energy on the grid using an import connection.

“The combination means you can flatten your production curve for solar, time shift your energy for higher-value periods or stop producing energy on to the grid if the price goes really low. Being able to absorb energy as well as give it out allows you to operate in an arbitrage market – buying energy when it’s cheap and selling it at peak when it’s expensive.”

Despite its rather brutal demise, Harper is adamant the end of the FIT was good news, largely because it released the sector from the uncertainties of political change and moving goalposts. That said, he recognises that many investors in the renewable sector are struggling to adapt to life in the post-FIT world.

“The past 10 to 15 years we’ve had these artificial mechanisms to stimulate that market, which have worked incredibly well. There was real certainty in your income stream backed up by this artificial prop. Today it’s about the real value of the energy. But a lot of financiers have only been in the industry while these stimuli have existed, and banks and investors don’t know to get their heads around it.”

Direction of travel

Harper applauds the general direction of travel set by government on environmental issues, although declaring a climate emergency and accepting the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations will amount to ­little more than “greenwash” unless it is followed through with a solid roadmap for delivering on the promise of decarbonisation, he warns. Mixed political messages on the environment are at best unhelpful, Harper says. “How can you sign up to the Climate Change Act and then still encourage fracking? That doesn’t really make sense.”

Despite government rhetoric on electric vehicles (EVs), he’d rather politicians were a bit more robust on the issue. The government’s Road to Zero strategy, launched in July last year, lays down its ambition to see at least half of new cars ultra-low emission by 2030 and a massive expansion of green infrastructure enabled across the country, as part of plans to make the UK the best place in the world to build and own an EV.

“They have said that in 20 years you’ll no longer be able to buy new petrol vehicles and they have the aspiration of 50-70 per cent of new vehicles being zero emission by 2030. But the wordage behind that isn’t really saying one thing or another,” Harper complains.

Harper has a particular interest in EVs, and not just because he’s been driving a Tesla for the past five years. Gridserve is poised to submit its first planning application for an EV forecourt after announcing in March that it wanted to invest £1 billion in building a nationwide network of 100 facilities to provide low-cost charging facilities powered by solar energy. The first sites are expected to be up and running by early 2020 and the full network should be operational within five years.

Each Electric Forecourt will have dedicated zones for private and fleet vehicles, such as taxis, buses, delivery vehicles and trucks, and will offer sub-30-minute charging times for most vehicles. Based on conventional fuel stations, forecourts will feature facilities including coffee shops and convenience supermarkets as well as offering customers an airport-style lounge with high-speed internet.

Harper claims the network will make charging an EV “easier and cheaper than a petrol or diesel alternative” with pricing competitive to home and office charging. Gridserve is also developing an app to help drivers plan journeys, reserve charging slots and pay for ancillary on-site services such EVs vehicles as easy as using petrol stations.”

Charging infrastructure

Gridserve is not alone in its ambition to secure a slice of the EV charging pie. In February last year National Grid said it had identified 50 strategic locations around the UK where the transmission and motorways networks overlap as it outlined proposals for a countrywide network of superfast chargers that could recharge EV batteries in as little as five minutes.

That same month, all six distribution networks operators said they were adopting a new standardised process for connecting charging infrastructure, as they seek to “supercharge” the rollout of EVs. Demand is clearly there – with more than one million EVs in the UK by 2020, the country needs more than 80,000 extra EV charging points demand, according to research by Emu Analytics. There are currently just 16,500 points and even fewer rapid charging ports – 1,500.

According to research by YouGov in January, regulatory confusion, a lack of financial incentives and limited choice are the main reasons holding back EVs. It found that only 2 per cent of households currently own a hybrid and just 1 per cent have an EV. Just 19 per cent of car owners say they are “somewhat likely” to buy an EV next.

Harper remains bullish that enhancing the charging infrastructure in a way that meets the needs of drivers will alleviate much of the range and charge anxiety stalling uptake and give individuals the confidence to transition from gas guzzlers to EVs.

And although Harper isn’t hugely confident that the UK is on track to meet its net zero target, he accepts a fundamental shift has taken place. “The cost of renewables and batteries has moved and that will change our energy sector very quickly. It’s a very exciting time and for the first time the economies are on side. With a sensible level playing field and less meddling I’m sure what will come out of it will be very positive.”

Gridserve in landmark deal with Warrington Council

A landmark deal with Warrington Council will see two state-of-the-art solar farms supply 100 per cent of the council’s electricity and generate millions of pounds to fund essential services and support economic regeneration in the area.

Construction of the two largest solar farms to be built in Great Britain since 2016 was given the green light in February after Gridserve closed funding with a consortium of banks led by Investec Bank and Leapfrog Finance. The project will use large batteries and new technology including bifacial modules and single-axis trackers to maximise revenues and deliver subsidy-free utility scale solar energy.

Electricity generated by the first, hybrid solar project in York will initially be sold on the open market. The secondary solar farm in Hull will supply all the council’s electricity needs and is expected to cut its energy bills by up to £2 million a year.

Together the two solar farms will generate enough green electricity each year to supply the equivalent of more than 18,000 UK homes, or power more than 30,000 electric vehicles, saving 25,000 tonnes of carbon per year. Warrington Borough Council will pay £62.34 million for the two assets. Gridserve will provide operation and maintenance services for the projects over their lifetimes.