Cornwall Insight looks further into the Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) that was issued last week. The REPD tracks the progress of renewable projects through the planning system and is used as a good indicator of future renewable deployment.

Cornwall Insight looks further into the Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) that was issued last week. The REPD tracks the progress of renewable projects through the planning system and is used as a good indicator of future renewable deployment.

The chart below shows the capacity of onshore wind and solar PV recorded on the REPD with each box showing the capacity granted planning consent (but where construction has not started) between support scheme closure announcements.

Charlotte Farmer Analyst at Cornwall Insight, said:

"It is reasonable that capacity with planning consent granted before official announcements of scheme closures would have been projects originally seeking subsidy and are now less likely to come forward. However, the capacity of onshore wind that is currently seeking planning consent is sufficient to meet the capacity projections in National Grid's latest Future Energy Scenarios up to 2025.

"Disappointingly, the figures for solar PV show the project pipeline is falling significantly behind projections. The situation looks stark when considering that of the planned 509MW of solar PV capacity, 350MW is dominated by one single application.

"Although planning consent and applications are only one element required to call forward new scale renewables, the primary hurdle for this 8.3GW of onshore wind and solar PV pipeline in planning will be securing a workable route-to-market to finance these schemes."