UK housebuilders look at going off-grid in energy shortage
With an energy crunch looming and up to ten years wait to get a grid connection for new housing developments in some parts of the country, UK housebuilders are looking into off-grid solutions.
“Housing developers could invest some of the money that they would otherwise spend on securing network capacity on solar panels, batteries and energy asset control systems,” said Jojo Hubbard, boss of City of London energy company Electron. “This would enable new developments to connect faster, use the grid while it was available and contribute flexibility services (or even excess renewable energy) back to it at times of shortages. Payments for these services need to allow them to recoup the additional spend on clean, flexible energy assets.
“Building these local markets for network capacity will be essential for places like west London. We are then in a position where developers of new, fully electrified homes can give back to the grid rather than experiencing it as a block for construction in certain areas. This approach not only saves costs on network reinforcement costs for all energy bill payers, it also gets us to net zero faster,” said Myers.…