Planning permission: how long do renewable projects wait in the UK?
This is part one in a series about renewable energy planning in the UK.
Nobody wants their view spoiled. The UK’s desire for green space and pristine vistas is likely a contributor to slowing down renewable energy projects, primarily through the planning system. Today, the FT reported on the difficulties the planning system presents for housing projects. I’m investigating how the data stacks up for renewable energy planning.
Large scale renewable energy projects often take several years to develop. By far the biggest renewable energy constraint in Britain seems to be grid connections. Projects are delayed by five years on average after the requested connection date, but planning also plays a role in delaying projects.
Nearly 10,000 projects are in our renewable energy planning database, representing 243 GW of capacity. 65% of these are smaller than 10 MW, which our planning system is more efficient at approving. Projects smaller than 1 MW which receive planning approval, for example a single-site system like a school or hospital, get it within 3-4 months on average. This rises to 8-9 months for 1-10 MW projects, and 1-2 years for larger projects.
Table of planning applications by project size
If planning was approved, it was included in the average duration for a permit to be granted. If there was no response to the planning application in the database (i.e. no rejection, withdrawal or data entry errors), it is included in the unresponsive time average.
Projects above 50 MW make up 7% of planning applications but 59% of grid capacity. If planning approval could be shortened by a few months for these larger projects, this would have an outsize impact on reducing financial costs incurred by project developers, and bringing on material capacity to the grid, faster. Given how similar small projects are, there may also be potential to shorten planning approvals even further through automation.
The data also reveals waiting times for sites that have not received a planning verdict. They have been waiting 1.4 years on average, compared to 0.7 years to get approval, with no significant trend based on project size.
There seems to be no major trend around the portion of project capacity approved over time. 56% of projects across the data set were granted planning permission (approval rates are lower in recent years because of the average approval time for projects). Onshore wind approvals are notably lower at 45%, while offshore wind stands at 71%, perhaps because it impacts fewer residents.
Percentage of project applications that receive planning permission by year of application
Where the UK is struggling is moving projects from planning to operations. The vast majority of projects which received planning permissions from 2016 onwards have not yet been built. This may be due to the nature of the technology or delays in grid connections.
Capacity of projects that have received planning permission and that are operating by year
In a follow-up post I will look further into this data, and also include geographic trends around voting and project locations.