SEUK: Scotland’s Climate Change Plan ‘a colossal disappointment’

Solar Energy UK has described Scotland’s latest Climate Change Plan as “a colossal disappointment”, as the government’s latest energy programme does not even mention solar power.

The plan was published this week, ahead of the Scottish elections to be held on 7 May. The document identifies five key areas of Scotland’s energy transition, to be advanced between 2026 and 2040, including wind, hydrogen and carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS); the plan argues that expanding these areas could deliver financial benefits of £42.3 billion by 2040. 

However, the fact that solar PV is not mentioned in the document at all is a “missed opportunity”, according to Josh King, chair of Solar Energy Scotland.

“To say that this is a missed opportunity would be putting it mildly, given that we find ourselves on the precipice of another fossil-fuelled energy crisis,” said King. “It’s a colossal disappointment, though not an unexpected one.”

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Solar power is mentioned seven times in an accompanying annex document, but only with regard to policies that are already in place, or vague statements where solar is listed as one of several renewable energy technologies that ought to see their footprint in Scotland increased. Regarding the former, the annex references a permitted development rights (PDR) review programme, which included solar equipment and was completed in May 2024; the document also references a review conducted into employment in Scottish solar that was published in July 2024.

This suggests that solar power is not thought to be a priority for the future of the Scottish energy mix, which contrasts with both the general consensus that solar is the most cost-effective form of deploying renewable energy and previous policies introduced in Scotland. A 2023 document, ‘Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan’, describes “significant appetite” for more solar deployment in Scotland, and notes that the then-current operational portfolio of 411MW could be more than doubled, with a further 767MW of capacity under development.

“Solar is a long established, commercially viable renewable technology that has been at the forefront of decarbonisation efforts,” reads the 2023 document, which includes specific plans for subsets of the solar industry, including community solar.

The absence of references to solar in the 2026 plan contrasts sharply with wind, which is mentioned eight times in the main document and 51 times in the supporting annex.

Part of this is attributable to the dominance of wind in the Scottish renewables industry more broadly—as of the third quarter of 2025, onshore and offshore wind accounted for 10.4GW and 4.3GW, respectively, of Scotland’s 17.8GW of operational renewable energy capacity, compared to less than 1GW of solar—but the shift from an acknowledgement of the importance of solar, to simply not including it in the documentation, is notable.

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The launch of the plan is the latest in a series of policies that have disadvantaged Scottish energy, and solar power in particular. Earlier this year, a report from Solar Energy Scotland found that the government’s withdrawal of interest-free loans for residential solar systems had led to Scotland’s contribution to the UK’s total rooftop solar market falling from more than one-quarter to barely over one-tenth. Last year, King also noted that UK-wide grid reform mechanisms would “put Scottish businesses at a disadvantage” due to the manner in which the Scottish grid is set up.

“Let’s hope the new government comes in with more vigour and drive for solar and adopts our manifesto to accelerate deployment and scale up the ambition,” said Solar Energy Scotland vice chair George Baxter.