We spoke to key solar industry players about how 2025 went for the sector and what we can expect in 2026.
December 29, 2025
In 2025, the UK government moved fast on legislation and reform to support the country’s renewable energy efforts.
“With the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan acting as the impetus,” Shraiya Thapa, clean energy senior knowledge lead at law firm Freeths, said, “the government has moved at pace this year.”
Thapa highlighted both the Solar and Clean Flexibility roadmaps as markers of progress, alongside grid connection changes and the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
This included changes to the UK planning system to make it harder for local authorities to reject solar developments on spurious grounds. In December, the government implemented a revised NPPF, stating that planning authorities should give “significant weight to the benefits associated with renewable and low carbon energy generation and the proposal’s contribution to a net zero future” when determining applications.
A spokesperson for UK-based solar supplier Segen told Solar Power Portal that there has been “meaningful progress” in both the solar and energy storage sectors this year, referencing, like Thapa, the publication of the Solar Roadmap.
“By outlining concrete steps to scale deployment and aiming for 45–47GW of installed solar by 2030, the roadmap gives developers, installers and investors greater confidence to plan and invest,” the spokesperson said. “The government is moving beyond early pledges and laying the foundations for sustained growth.”
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Chris Hewett, Chief Executive of the solar and energy storage trade association Solar Energy UK, noted the further importance of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) establishing a Solar Council to continue the work of the Solar Taskforce, which developed the UK's Solar Roadmap.
“Any business thrives with government support and a solid policy base. With CP2030, the Solar Roadmap, Connection Reform and the Solar Council, we clearly have those, though of course there is always room for improvement,” he said.
Pranav Menon, senior research associate at Aurora Energy, stated that this year's build rates remain “well short” of what would be required to meet Clean Power 2030, implying solar deployment closer to 6GW per year will be needed through the second half of the decade. 
Menon saw the key constraint continue to be grid connection delays, “stretching project timelines and limiting how quickly capacity can be brought forward, even where project economics are strong”.
That is despite the recent publication of nominal grid connection timelines for renewable technologies culminating from the grid connection queue reshuffle that took place this year.
Related:Great British Energy’s five-year plan cements its role in clean power
In April 2025, the UK’s energy market regulator Ofgem approved a plan to radically change the way that the National Energy System Operator (NESO) handles applications for grid connections by renewable energy developers.
A total of 283GW of projects were given Gate 2 allocations, with 132GW ‘Phase 1’ projects due to connect before 2030 and 151GW of Phase 2 allocations given dates up to 2035.
Projects totalling 216GW received Gate 1 offers, which means they will remain in the system with a provisional deferred connections offer and will be allowed to reapply for Gate 2 status through biannual application windows. 
One developer characterised Gate 1 as containing projects that “essentially do not exist as far as the system operator is concerned”.
For Thapa: “On the grid connection front, for solar projects which are due to connect in the next few years, ultimate reinforcement costs and effective delivery from both project and network supply chains will prove critical to meeting the government’s targets.”
Hewett similarly said that “although there was, to say the least, room for improvement in its management and the results were painful for many of our members, we all knew that the queue for grid connections desperately needed reform”.
Related:Autumn Budget 2025: Government to reduce energy bills by covering policy costs
“Much detail is yet to be worked through,” he added, noting that the offers announced do align with government and industry targets. “With grid connection offers accepted and planning permission obtained, a huge volume of groundmount projects will be delivered over the coming years.”
That said, 2025 marked significant milestones for the UK solar industry. Segen called reaching installed capacity over 20GW in the UK “a pivotal moment that demonstrated solar’s transition from a complementary technology to a core pillar of the UK’s energy system”.
The company’s spokesperson added that large-scale solar PV projects increasingly reflect “a more mature and considered approach to development, with stronger emphasis on biodiversity net gain, community engagement and co-location with agriculture”.
Segen also said advances in panel efficiency, inverter performance and energy management software have significantly improved system productivity and reliability. 
These things strengthen the business case for onsite generation, the spokesperson said, “while for homeowners, simpler installation processes and smarter technologies are making solar more accessible and attractive”.
Menon agreed, saying: “Deployment has been particularly strong behind-the-meter, with 2025 a record year for accredited rooftop installations, reflecting accelerating uptake across both domestic and C&I sites.”
The UK’s largest solar power plant, 373MW Cleve Hill, came online this year, Hewett’s “standout project” of 2025. 
He also pointed to the growth in the residential sector, attributing this to an increase in new build projects.
“The Future Homes Standard and Future Buildings Standard will no doubt boost the market further.”
He noted, however, that “on reflection” measures to boost the residential and commercial-scale retrofit market have been “somewhat slower to progress than for groundmount”, pointing out that investment from the government’s Great British Energy company for school and hospital rooftop solar PV was “exceedingly welcome”.
“We still await the fine details of the Future Homes Standard and the Future Buildings Standard, which should put PV on the vast majority of new construction.”
Menon said the shape of the market is evolving to see private wire and onsite generation for C&I offtakers, “where corporates are highly motivated to lower energy costs and manage price volatility, while also potentially circumventing grid connection delays”.
Looking to 2026, Thapa said she expects “increasing interest in co-located projects, particularly solar and storage in an era of limited grid connection capacity and more hours of negative pricing each year”. 
“However, co-located projects still face plenty of barriers, and we need prioritisation of these projects to better reflect the value and efficiencies they can offer to the network.
“The hope was to have this addressed through the Strategic Spacial Energy Plan (SSEP), with the SSEP potentially also revisiting connection capacities for all technologies 2031-2035, but recently announced delays to SSEP publication have made near-term change uncertain.”
Like Thapa, Menon also projected more focus on co-located solar and storage projects, “although the lack of headroom in the connections queue for new battery energy storage system (BESS) assets remains a challenge”.
For Hewett, “real-world challenges” in 2026 will be skills and supply chain. Segen’s spokesperson similarly said that as homes and businesses increasingly look for combined systems for home installations, “investing in training and certification programs will be essential for creating a workforce capable of supporting the UK’s transition to a truly integrated, decarbonised energy ecosystem”.
The company also sees “one of the most urgent needs” of the UK solar industry in 2026 as the development of “robust, well-funded recycling infrastructure”.
Hewett’s final take was that “we can also expect even more evidence-free anti-renewables rhetoric from political opponents and those with a vested interest in preventing the energy transition”. 
To mitigate this, he said, “Solar Energy UK will be increasing its communications efforts in order to counter these messages and keep delivering more clean, secure, cheap energy to the UK.”
Read more about:
Molly Green
Senior Reporter, Informa
Molly joined the team in 2024 and has led coverage on the UK sites. Now shifting to a more global view, Molly is interested in how legislation shapes market dynamics, covering the intersection of policy design, investment patterns, and energy transition pathways. 
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