The price of solar, onshore wind, and offshore wind have fallen by 62%, 55%, and 75% in under a decade. The main obstacles to generating more energy from wind and solar now are a broken planning system and archaic regulation for grid connections.
It is not inevitable that it should take 12 years to build a new wind farm, 4 years to build a new solar farm, or 8 years to build a new transmission line to take energy to where it is most needed.
The Powerbook’s 25 actions for energy security would streamline infrastructure planning, improve investment incentives, and accelerate grid connections. This would cut timelines for deploying new solar, wind, and nuclear power stations dramatically. We estimate that the reforms would unlock 70GW of additional renewable generation, move grid buildout timelines forward by three years, and allow two Small Modular Reactors to be built by the end of the decade.