UK: Supporting Government partnerships

We’re proud to announce that Lightsource bp has been invited by the Rt Hon Graham Stuart MP, Minister of State at the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, to join the Core Group of the Government Solar Taskforce – the leading Government and Industry taskforce for UK Solar between now and the next election. The purpose of the taskforce is to bring together key players from Government, industry, regulatory and other relevant organisations to drive forward the increases in ground mount and rooftop solar required to meet the 70GW solar PV deployment by 2035 in order to meet the 2035 Net Zero power sector and 2050 Net Zero targets.

Lightsource bp will form one of 8 members of the core group (one of two utility developers) alongside: EDF, Segen, EVO Energy, UKIB, Next Energy, Microgeneration Certification Scheme and Energy Networks Association.

The first meeting of the taskforce took place on Thursday 25th May and yielded a lot of interesting discussion, including plans to…

• publish a solar roadmap in 2024 to drive forward the actions needed to deliver the UK’s ambition to increase solar capacity by nearly fivefold by 2035
• upskill and expand the solar workforce to meet increasing levels of demand, while creating well-paid long-term employment opportunities for Britain
• identify opportunities to secure resilient supply chains and innovation within the global market, helping to generate opportunities for UK businesses to export their expertise around the world

Lightsource bp and the Taskforce will be supporting the UK’s solar industry at a time when it is going from strength to strength:

• over 99% of the UK’s solar capacity – both on the ground and on rooftops – has been installed since May 2010 – equivalent to powering nearly 4 million homes
• in 2020, the solar industry supported 11,500 jobs across the country – with that figure now expected to be even higher
• in March this year, over 19,000 smaller-scale rooftop installations were made, at a rate of more than 500 a day. If this continues, there will be 230,000 installations in 2023 – beating the current record set in 2011

Lightsource bp is committed to continuing to drive the UK solar industry forward, and our role on the Solar Taskforce further demonstrates that.