Solar is reshaping the global electricity market
Solar power recorded another exceptional year in 2025.
More than 510 GW of solar capacity was added globally, representing almost three-quarters of all new renewable capacity. Solar and wind together accounted for 96.8% of net renewable additions. By the end of the year, global renewable power capacity had reached approximately 5.2 TW.
The Energy Institute’s review also reports that solar generation increased by around 30% during the year and supplied 8.7% of global electricity. Solar therefore overtook wind as a source of electricity generation for the first time and moved closer to the contribution made by nuclear power.
For developers, this growth creates a substantial pipeline of investment opportunities across utility-scale solar, battery energy storage, transmission infrastructure and associated development. It also increases competition for suitable land, grid capacity, supply chains and regulatory resources.
The question is no longer whether renewable technologies can be deployed at scale. It is whether the legal, planning and physical infrastructure surrounding them can keep pace.
Electricity demand is growing faster than energy demand
The transition is being driven not only by the decarbonisation of existing electricity generation, but by the expansion of electricity into areas previously served by other forms of energy.
Electric vehicle adoption, the electrification of buildings and industrial processes, increased cooling requirements and the rapid growth of data centres are all contributing to higher electricity consumption.
Artificial intelligence is becoming a particularly important factor. The International Energy Agency expects global data centre electricity consumption to reach approximately 945 TWh by 2030, more than double its current level. Consumption is forecast to grow by around 15% annually between 2024 and 2030, more than four times faster than electricity demand from other sectors.
This growth creates a close relationship between digital infrastructure and energy development. Data centre projects increasingly depend upon the timely delivery of generation, transmission and grid connection capacity. Renewable projects, in turn, benefit from the long-term demand and potential offtake arrangements created by major electricity users.
For lawyers advising on either type of development, power availability, connection timing and associated infrastructure are becoming central considerations in site acquisition, planning strategy, financing and contractual allocation of risk.
The constraint has moved beyond generation
Renewable generation can often be constructed more quickly than the infrastructure needed to connect and support it.
Transmission projects may require extensive land rights, environmental assessment, public consultation and regulatory approval. Grid connection offers may carry lengthy delivery dates or depend upon wider reinforcement works. Battery storage and flexibility services must also expand to help balance increasingly variable generation.
The International Energy Agency estimates that annual global grid investment will need to increase by approximately 50% from its current level of around US$400 billion by 2030. This will also require larger supply chains, a suitably skilled workforce and more effective management of connection queues.
As a result, the commercial viability of a renewable project cannot be assessed by reference to generation technology alone. Developers and investors must consider whether the project can secure:
- an implementable planning consent;
- appropriate land and access rights;
- a viable and timely grid connection;
- necessary environmental and regulatory approvals;
- transmission or distribution capacity;
- storage or balancing arrangements; and
- funding on terms that accommodate the project timetable.
Delays affecting any one of these elements can have consequences across the wider transaction, including missed milestones, increased financing costs, contractor claims and the loss of commercial opportunities.
Planning and legal challenge remain material delivery risks
The need to accelerate infrastructure does not remove the requirement for legally robust decision-making.
Renewable energy, grid and storage developments can give rise to complex questions involving environmental impact assessment, habitats protection, landscape and visual effects, compulsory acquisition, community consultation and the interpretation of national and local policy.
Projects may also attract organised opposition, particularly where development affects valued landscapes, agricultural land, residential amenity or protected environmental interests. Even where a challenge is ultimately unsuccessful, proceedings may delay construction, create uncertainty for funders and counterparties, and increase the cost of maintaining project arrangements.
The consequences are often most significant during the period immediately after consent, when developers may be seeking to discharge conditions, complete financing, acquire remaining interests and mobilise contractors.
For legal advisers, early scrutiny of the consenting process remains essential. This may include reviewing the adequacy of consultation, the treatment of environmental information, the decision-maker’s reasons, compliance with procedural requirements and the interaction between the principal consent and supporting approvals.
A project’s legal resilience should also be considered alongside its contractual and insurance strategy. The objective is not simply to defend a challenge if it arises, but to understand how delay and adverse outcomes would affect the wider development structure.
Programme certainty is becoming a commercial asset
In a market characterised by rapidly expanding demand, connection constraints and substantial capital requirements, programme certainty has significant value.
A project with a clear consent, defensible decision-making process and appropriately managed challenge exposure may be better positioned to secure finance, enter construction arrangements and retain investor confidence.
This requires coordination between developers, planning consultants, environmental specialists, legal advisers, lenders and insurers. Legal challenge risk should be considered early enough to influence transaction structure, rather than being addressed only after proceedings have been threatened or commenced.
Specialist Judicial Review and permit challenge insurance can form part of that approach. Depending upon the policy and the circumstances of the project, cover may respond to defined losses resulting from a challenge to a planning or permitting decision, including certain delay-related costs or losses arising if a consent is quashed.
Insurance does not replace careful legal analysis or a robust consenting process. It can, however, help allocate residual risk and provide greater certainty to developers, investors and lenders where an otherwise viable project remains exposed to legal challenge.
Delivering the next phase of the transition
The latest global figures provide strong evidence that renewable deployment is accelerating. Solar is expanding at record speed, electricity demand is rising and clean generation is becoming increasingly central to economic growth.
The next phase will be determined by delivery.
Governments must provide effective consenting and grid frameworks. Developers must coordinate generation with connections, storage and supporting infrastructure. Lawyers must help ensure that decisions and project structures withstand scrutiny. Investors and lenders must assess not only technical viability, but the potential consequences of delay and legal challenge.
The energy transition is no longer principally constrained by the availability of renewable technology. Increasingly, its success will depend upon whether complex infrastructure can be consented, connected and delivered with sufficient legal and commercial certainty.
Continuum Specialty provides specialist insurance solutions for legal challenges to planning and permitting decisions, supporting developers, investors and lenders from consent through to project delivery.
