The boss of Octopus Energy has highlighted Scotland’s potential to offer Europe’s cheapest power and addressed the significant delays in connecting new solar farms to the grid.
Greg Jackson, the Chief Executive Officer of Octopus Energy, spoke to Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC’s Sunday morning programme about the future of energy in the UK.
Mr Jackson emphasised that achieving the government’s goal of clean power by 2030 is feasible but requires swift and focused action.
He welcomed the government’s initial steps, including planning reforms and authorisations for building solar farms.
However, Greg Jackson noted that the process of connecting these new energy sources to the grid is currently too slow.
Mr Jackson said: “There’s a couple of things we need to see now. First of all, it’s great that we can, look forward to being able to build stuff.
“But we’ll also need to be able to connect it to the grid. And, grid connections are ground to a halt in the UK. There’s a solar farm we want to build in County Durham. We get a grid connection in 2037. That means waiting 13 years for us to be able to invest to create the jobs in building that, but also for citizens to get cheap power.
“And we also need to see market reform. If we had regional pricing in the UK for electricity, every region would be cheaper than it is now. Scotland would have the cheapest electricity in Europe.
“The UK could win investment from things like data centres and factories that need access to cheap power.”
