Despite Rishi Sunak’s very recent u-turn on several green targets, the UK has been ramping up its renewable energy game for a while now. This year, the country marked its trillionth kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity generated from renewable sources – and now we have another huge asset in our fight to produce more green energy.
The Ockendon solar farm has begun generating electricity from a closed landfill site in Essex. With more than 100,000 solar panels, Ockendon is the third-largest solar farm in the UK and is expected to generate enough clean power for around 15,000 homes.
While this is undeniably a great boost to the UK’s target to hit net zero by 2050, we are, in truth, still just scratching the surface in terms of how much more green energy we need to produce. The gov wants to increase our solar output from 14 gigawatts (GW) to 70GW by 2035. Apparently, that would require building a new solar power plant every five days for the next 12 years.
Frank Gordon, the director of policy at the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology told the Guardian: ‘We urgently need more solar in the UK to help meet our legally binding net zero goals, and this summer’s extraordinary global weather has further underlined the need for climate action.’
Before you go on a climate change-induced spiral, the country has seen some positive progress when it comes to renewable energy. Since 2020, almost half of the UK’s power has come from a mix of wind, solar, bioenergy and hydroelectric sources. Which certainly isn’t enough – but it’s a start.
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