Today SuperNode Ltd submitted a response to the public consultation ran by the department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS): ‘Enabling a High Renewable, Net-Zero Electricity System: Call for Evidence’. The UK government sought novel views on the approach to the financing and deployment of renewable technologies, with a specific focus on ways to evolve the current Contracts for Difference (CfD) mechanism.
SuperNode responded to the consultation arguing for a more coordinated, longer term, international approach to grid planning with a financing and deployment system to reflect that.
“The traditional grid connection solutions that have served the industry well to this point will no longer be fit for purpose. We therefore must move towards a coordinated integration that will serve society decades into the future with a long-term view rather than a view to the next round of offshore deployment.”
“There is benefit to supporting these international projects as there is a greater opportunity to decarbonise by working with our international neighbours as a collective.”
SuperNode further commented on how CfDs, which have invigorated the offshore wind industry, can have a similar effect on grid/transmission technologies.
“A technology requiring much deeper consideration from a CfD perspective is grid/transmission technology. Specifically, in relation to solutions that will unlock cumulative offshore wind capacity required by 2050, in an integrated European context.”
The response went on to reinforce the significance of these decisions outlining how the actions of today will shape the energy system of far into the future.
“We must ensure that decisions made now do not inhibit future potential optimisation.”
SuperNode hopes this consultation can become a stepping stone along the way to a future Pan-European Supergrid connecting all Europeans to cheap, reliable, carbon-free energy.
See our full submission here: BEIS Call for Evidence SuperNode Final Signed