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Labour pledge requires 100m PV panels, claims EvoEnergy

Tim Hickman, Evo Energy's technical manager
Tim Hickman, Evo Energy’s technical manager
Labour’s election promise to remove the carbon from the UK’s electricity supply by 2030 would require an additional 100 million solar panels to be installed over the next 15 years, according to calculations made by EvoEnergy.

The commitment, made earlier this week, to introduce this in the event of a majority Labour government on May 07 would need 700,000 panels to be installed each year.

In total 26GW of capacity would be needed on top of the existing 5GW of power already generated by PV in the UK.

Tim Hickman, EvoEnergy’s technical manager, said: “Committing to making the power network carbon free by 2030 is a big ask and will depend very much on political will.

“Of course in reality, meeting this target wouldn’t be achieved through solar alone, but whatever the mix of clean energy generation that’s chosen, the question it raises about grid capacity, supply chain security and delivery should be considered now.”