The solar industry in Scotland has today urged the Scottish Government to sweep away legacy planning barriers to solar developments, large and small.
This call comes as the closing date for the National Planning Framework 4 consultation draws near.
Solar Energy Scotland, the trade association for the industry, has raised concerns about the draft National Planning Framework.
It called on the government to prioritise projects that reduce climate emissions and a recognition that clean energy generation is required to meet other objectives on housing, transport, heat, and power.
There are now 687MW of utility-scale solar projects already in the Scottish planning system, with a further 1388MW of capacity in other stages of development.
If all these projects are approved, Scotland could benefit from more than 2.5GW of solar capacity, not including new rooftop-scale solar projects: this would be greater than the capacity of all of Scotland’s hydropower plants combined.
The industry has also made the case that rooftop-scale solar should be granted the correct development status and remove unnecessary obstacles to solar development from planning policy.
Thomas McMillan, chairman of Solar Energy Scotland, said: “With the right policy environment, Scotland’s rapidly-growing solar sector has the potential to help meet so many of the Scottish Government’s objectives, not just decarbonisation.
“The intense pressure on domestic energy bills cannot be tackled as long as we remain so dependent on gas, and security of supply is now rightly even higher on everyone’s agenda.
“We cannot afford to delay. It is entirely possible for our industry to add 4-6 gigawatts of solar projects across Scotland by 2030, but to get there we will need Ministers to recognise that potential, and to make these modest changes to planning policy.”