Historically, solar development in the UK has largely followed one model: secure land, obtain planning permission, connect to the grid, and export electricity into the wider energy network.
But increasingly, that model is running into the challenge of grid congestion, with connection queues now stretching well into the 2030s. For many landowners considering renewable energy projects, the challenge is no longer whether their land is suitable for solar, but whether there is any realistic route to market for the electricity generated.
At the same time, many commercial and industrial businesses are facing a different problem entirely. Manufacturers, logistics operators, data centres, food producers and industrial facilities are all under growing pressure to electrify operations, reduce exposure to volatile power pricing and demonstrate measurable progress against Scope 2 and net-zero targets. Yet many are finding that traditional energy procurement routes offer limited certainty on either long-term cost or supply resilience.
These two challenges are increasingly converging.
At ILOS, we are seeing growing demand for a different approach: solar and battery projects developed specifically to supply high energy users directly through private wire infrastructure and flexible power purchase agreements.
The Shift Towards Dedicated Clean Power
Where businesses and public sector estates may be looking to broadly procure clean power to meet ESG objectives, specialist tariffs from existing suppliers are one solution. However, these tariffs can be limited and don’t always provide matched green energy certificates that confirm the provenance of renewable power. Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs) provide a fixed volume of clean power, at a fixed price, but are still contingent on projects being grid connected.
But, dedicated assets supplying solar and battery power through a private wire connection – literally a direct power cable between an end users’ premises and a project on neighbouring land – offer significant benefits to energy consumers (offtakers) and land owners.
For offtakers, the benefits can be significant – offering long term variable pricing, reduced exposure to wholesale market volatility and reductions in network costs alongside measurable and directly traceable clean energy supplies for ESG reporting. Against a backdrop of a constrained national grid, the objective is resilience and predictability as much as sustainability.
For landowners, the emergence of private wire and corporate-led renewable projects is creating opportunities that would not traditionally have existed.
In the past, land without a strong grid connection may have struggled to support viable solar development. Today, proximity to major energy demand can in some cases become more valuable than proximity to transmission infrastructure.
Industrial estates, manufacturing facilities, local authorities & councils, science parks, logistics hubs, EV fleet depots and data centres are all becoming potential anchors for localised renewable generation.
This is particularly relevant for landowners who may have missed earlier grid application windows or who face long waiting periods for conventional export connections.
Rather than depending entirely on access to the national grid, projects can instead be designed around identified commercial demand.
Typical private wire developments often require smaller footprints than large utility-scale export projects. A 10MW solar development, for example, may require approximately 50 acres of land depending on design and storage integration. Lease structures are generally long-term, commonly extending 35 to 40 years, helping provide stable and predictable rental income.
A More Integrated Development Model
As these projects become more sophisticated, the development process itself is also changing.
Commercial energy users increasingly require solutions tailored to their operational profile, consumption patterns and long-term business strategy. Matching generation design to real-world energy demand is becoming critical.
This means renewable energy projects are no longer simply land and planning exercises. They increasingly involve sophisticated demand modelling, optimisation of asset performance, the structuring of power purchase agreement (PPA) contracts and negotiation with existing suppliers to ‘sleeve’ new supply into existing agreements.
At ILOS, we work across the full lifecycle of these projects, bringing together landowners, commercial energy users, financing and technical delivery into a single coordinated process.
For businesses, this helps simplify what can otherwise become a fragmented and consultancy-heavy procurement exercise. For landowners, it creates a clearer route to development even in areas where conventional grid access remains constrained.
The Energy Transition Is Becoming More Localised
Rather than relying solely on large, remote generation assets feeding into constrained national infrastructure, many organisations are now exploring more localised energy ecosystems built around dedicated supply relationships.
For landowners, this creates a new category of renewable opportunity beyond traditional grid-export solar.
For commercial energy users, it offers a route towards cleaner, more predictable and potentially lower-cost electricity supply.
And for both parties, it represents a practical response to one of the defining challenges of the energy transition: how to deliver new clean power in a system where grid access alone can no longer be taken for granted.