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Solar Power Portal spoke with Neil McDermott, CEO of the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) and Electricity Settlements Company (ESC), ahead of the UK Solar Summit 2025, where he will deliver the keynote: AR7: Impacts and Expectations.
The upcoming seventh auction round (AR7) of the government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is expected to be the largest yet, with significant implications for solar PV and long-duration storage.
LCCC and ESC are responsible for managing CfD contracts and the Capacity Market (CM), both crucial for UK energy market development.
McDermott described the predicted growth in solar over the next five years as a “tremendous opportunity”—especially given the government’s Clean Power 2030 ambition.
“In the CfD auctions, solar is dominating in terms of the number of contracts, if not capacity, showing that potential,” he said.
In Allocation Round 6 (AR6), out of 130 awarded CfD contracts, approximately 90 were solar projects.
McDermott acknowledged barriers identified by National Energy System Operator (NESO) in its CP2030 report:
“All these need to go in the right direction for CP2030 to be achieved,” he noted.
CfDs remain a key route-to-market by providing a 15-year fixed price, instilling market confidence and enabling project realisation.
McDermott stressed that other options like corporate PPAs exist, but CfDs offer stable conditions for developers:
“We are working with those developers awarded contracts now to support them through the process of realising these projects.”
With a target of 47GW of solar capacity by 2030, industry-wide collaboration is essential. LCCC, as a government-owned nonprofit, plays a mediating role:
“We triangulate between developers, trade bodies and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).”
By working through policy and supply chain hurdles, LCCC supports the sector’s ability to deliver on Clean Power 2030 and net zero by 2050.