The UK Solar Roadmap: Practical steps to achieve the aims of Clean Power 2030

On 30 June 2025, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published the Solar Roadmap.  The Solar Roadmap is a new policy paper setting out the practical steps that the Government and industry are expected to take to deliver on the Government’s ambitions to achieve 45-47GW of solar energy by 2030 under the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan.  The Solar Roadmap sets out the final conclusions of the UK Solar Taskforce, an organisation made up of Government, industry and other relevant bodies.

The Solar Roadmap covers a number of key issues for solar energy including: the removal of barriers to domestic and commercial rooftop solar; electricity network reforms; strengthening the supply chain and innovation; and details of skills, planning and support schemes. 

Importantly, the Solar Roadmap states that illustrative deployment scenarios show that reaching the 45-47GW range for solar energy is achievable but will require significant action. As such, the document presents 62 actions to be taken by Government, industry and other bodies (with 10 further actions contained in Appendix 1 to the Solar Roadmap).  One of the key actions from the planning perspective is the confirmation that the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will consider reforms to planning requirements for overhead distribution power lines carried on wooden poles given their low visual impact.  These are currently classified as nationally significant infrastructure projects (“NSIPs”) when they are over 2km in length with a voltage of 132kV or more.  Additionally, the Solar Roadmap confirms that the UK Government will explore how planning levers could further support floating solar projects.

The Solar Roadmap is unlikely to significantly influence the need case for solar NSIPs given the significant support already provided by the energy national policy statements.  However, it could serve as a policy bridge for projects brought forward under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (“TCPA 1990”) by helping to demonstrate their need. For example, the Solar Roadmap recognises some of the key benefits of solar energy including:

• ground-mounted solar being one of the cheapest electricity sources to build and operate at scale;
• construction of large-scale solar projects being capable of taking as little as one year; and
• the potential for solar to support an estimate up to 35,000 direct and indirect jobs in Great Britain by 2030.

Progress with implementing the UK Solar Roadmap will be overseen by the Solar Council, a new forum made up of the solar industry, UK Government, and other relevant parties.

Burges Salmon have planning lawyers with a wide array of experience promoting solar developments of all sizes, whether under the NSIP regime or the TCPA 1990.  If you have any questions or would otherwise like to discuss any issue raised in this article, please contact Alex Minhinick.