The UK’s energy landscape will be transformed over the next couple of decades – and latest projections predict that Britain’s electricity demand will increase by 170% by 2050.
The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has published its 2025 Future Energy Scenarios (FES), claiming that demand for electricity could soar from 290TWh today to 785TWh by mid-century.
This would represent a huge reshaping of the UK energy picture – we’d be witnessing electrification everywhere. And with pressure to meet Net Zero by 2050, the build-out of renewables simply has to accelerate just to keep pace with demand – while reducing emissions of course.
Fintan Slye, Chief Executive of NESO, summed up the situation: “We need to go further and faster, accelerating the roll-out of clean-energy technologies to deliver a clean and affordable system.”
Britain’s Net Zero journey is locked into four key waves. The foundations are down, so we are now in the second wave of scaling up markets to integrate low-carbon technologies.
FES 2025 suggests a plan to ensure a secure and affordable transition to Net Zero:
- Rapid development of infrastructure for electricity, gas, hydrogen, and carbon capture.
- Promotion of energy efficiency measures, innovative tariffs, and demand flexibility to save money for consumers.
- Incentives for the industrial sector to switch to low-carbon fuels and embrace carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The Role of Microgrids
The SNRG SmartGrid can also play a crucial role in accelerating the transition, because it overcomes grid constraints, which in some areas of the country are causing severe delays to connecting important commercial and residential projects.
The SNRG SmartGrid is a communal energy system integrating dozens, hundreds or thousands of homes and buildings in a single location.
Real-time consumption of solar PV is maximised to improve cost and carbon savings, while a G100-compliant customer import and export limitation scheme allows developers to do more with the available grid capacity.
SNRG funds, owns and operates the whole system, so there is no upfront capex, or operation and maintenance burden.
To find out more about the SNRG SmartGrid, see oursnrg.com
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