UK solar power in 2026 and beyond: Lessons to learn, reasons to celebrate

My dad worked in nuclear power, and I remember him telling me that the future of energy lies in renewables. This was 30 years ago, and I still believe in that future even after despite the challenges of achieving COP 20 targets. If anything, overcoming these challenges, has been a rich source of lessons learnt, to inform our next big steps.

But to look to the future, we have to understand the past. O&M (where I place a lot of my focus) is rapidly gaining prominence because, it’s a critical and often overlooked part of the puzzle.

Today’s ageing PV systems were built in a time of feed-in tariffs. If you wanted those tariffs, your project needed to be finished and connected by 31 March each year. Quality was often sacrificed for speed, and technology has moved on drastically – what was cutting edge even 10 years ago is now no longer delivering what a modern equivalent could today.

Long-term UK-centric thinking is essential to our solar future

Operation and maintenance is an issue in many industries, not just solar. It might not be a glamourous topic, but if an asset isn’t running then it isn’t producing. When I got into the industry, we never thought a brand-new site would need repowering in only 10-15 years. Yet today, 99% of repowering happens to replace failing and unreliable equipment, not to just optimise a site’s productivity.

There is of course a tendency towards cost-driven decisions (money matters after all) but project planning and investment models don’t always consider the 25-40 years of an asset’s full lifespan or the individual circumstances of that asset. I often see solar projects being built in the UK copying the same specifications as those in the Mediterranean, even though we have a completely different climate here.

Thankfully, this is an area where BayWa r.e. at least have learned the right lessons. Our Projects and Asset Operations teams know how sites should be built because we see them at every stage of their lifecycles.

Additionally, we also take on O&M for sites we haven’t built ourselves. We can still get them back on the right track over time using that cradle-to-grave perspective from our own projects. Longevity is the key to really optimising output, using the right equipment and installed to a good standard for UK weather conditions. There is nothing like knowing you have been instrumental in turning around an under productive site. That can potentially be 15 years of increased generation which can make a real difference to both our planet and investor’s pockets.

Opening new pathways into solar to beat skills shortages

I remain very optimistic about the future of solar in the UK. But there’s one prediction I can make with equal confidence: if we can’t close the skills gap, we will face challenges.

Exciting new technologies like battery energy storage are key pieces of the energy transition puzzle. But they also mean that more and more sites now require 24/7 reactive maintenance. How can we deliver all this work? The same can be said of repowering which, as mentioned, is creating more and more jobs that need filling.

To maintain the right standards, you need the right people in the right location - Right now, we’re exploring every possible avenue to attract the right talent into these jobs. You’ll find us at trade shows, community events, and talking to school leavers. We’re expanding our apprenticeship and junior development programmes. Alongside working with our various trade association, we’re also identifying and building links with the most promising sources of talent. Ex-armed forces personnel, for example, have a lot of the right transferrable skills.

In my opinion, we also need to see greater standardisation across the industry. People need clearer examples of best practice, with accreditation that backs up those higher standards. I sit on steering committees who work to define these standards. That way, we’ll hopefully be getting the right people moving into solar, enabling them to contribute in the most effective way possible.

Step up into solar alongside BayWa r.e.

There’s huge potential in the UK market, and we’re seeing more and more of it realised each day. I’m proud to see so much of the best work being done at BayWa r.e.

We’ve connected project and O&M teams to keep communications open and information flowing freely. We’ve centralised our health and safety function, so everyone’s protected to the same level. We’re delivering great projects that perform better for longer.

In short, we’ve set ourselves up well and ensured there’s much to look forward to. At BayWa r.e. our technical support teams perform alongside our asset managers and field teams. It also exciting to now see our newer and more junior colleagues progress within their roles within this setup.

But to keep this momentum up, we need to grow in step with the industry. Could you be one of the people needed to keep the UK’s future bright? If you’re curious about a career in solar, you’re already partway there.