Why 2026 is the year to think bigger than the grid

The conflict in Iran increased natural gas prices by 90% in the first week of the conflict, exposing just how vulnerable businesses remain to forces far beyond their control.

In response, familiar calls have resurfaced to expand domestic fossil fuel production, including renewed pressure to drill in the North Sea.

But this is a reactive answer to a structural problem. Even if we drilled for more fossil fuels, it would not address the underlying volatility of natural gas. Anything we produce would still be sold at global market prices, meaning it wouldn't make our bills cheaper, and there's not enough of it to fill our demand, meaning we'd still be just as vulnerable to global market shocks.. 

The only answer to this problem is homegrown renewable energy, and the UK is moving in the right direction, as shown by the fact that it generated a record amount of electricity last year. However, on the journey to net zero a deeper challenge facing our energy system today has not always received the attention it deserves: the growing strain it's putting on the grid.

Across Europe and beyond, grid capacity has become one of the defining challenges of the energy transition. Electrification is accelerating demand faster than infrastructure can keep up, projected to increase by 50% in the next decade. 

This is causing extensive delays to renewable projects that's stopping businesses from being able to decarbonise. In the last six months alone, the queue for grid connections has grown by 460%. 

There are plans in place to upgrade the grid to try and sort this out, but it's projected to cost £35 billion ($47.3 billion) over the next five years. That's before you even take 2050 targets into account - that's a lot of money for the taxpayers to fork out. 

It's clear that electrification alone is not the answer. We need to think bigger than the grid and address the sleeping giant of net zero: heat. 

Heating accounts for 37% of the UK’s total emissions, yet seems to get regularly overlooked in favour of electrification. So far most businesses have been focused on installing heat pumps, but because they rely on the grid they're encountering several electrification-related problems. 

If 2025 was the year we fully recognised the scale of the grid challenge, then 2026 must be the year we start thinking bigger than it. That means looking seriously at grid-edge technologies.

Supporting the grid intelligently

Put simply, grid-edge solutions generate energy at or near the point of demand. They are distributed solutions operating independent of the grid. They deliver energy instantly, bypass long installation queues and aren’t subject to the costs of expanding grid capacity.

This approach is about supporting the grid more intelligently. By decentralising part of our energy demand, we can relieve pressure on the grid while still accelerating progress towards net zero.

One of the most immediate advantages is speed. Instead of potentially waiting years to get a new connection to the grid, businesses t can start installing it straight away. They allow projects to move forward now, rather than being held back by infrastructure timelines that are outside their control.

More on grid resilience:
Building grid resilience from the distribution level up
Rethinking UK grid resilience in response to energy shocks

The second advantage is resilience against price volatility. By generating energy on-site with an abundant renewable resource, i.e. the sun, organisations don't need to rely on gas and therefore have more certainty about their energy costs. In an environment where energy costs can shift dramatically in a matter of weeks, providing certainty is increasingly valuable.

Third, there is a broader system benefit that is often overlooked. Every unit of energy generated and consumed at the grid-edge is a unit that does not need to travel through transmission and distribution networks. This reduces the scale of upgrades required, easing the financial burden on governments and, ultimately, taxpayers. At a time when public finances are under pressure - - avoiding unnecessary infrastructure spend should be a priority.

Perhaps most importantly, grid-edge solutions help free up capacity for the parts of the transition that truly depend on electrification, such as EVs or the ever growing number of AI data centres and thus will get us to net zero quicker. 

A tangible difference

What's more is that these technologies are not just pie in the sky ideas, but are already out there making a difference. 

Solar thermal is a clear example of what thinking beyond the grid can look like in practice, while decarbonising heat at the same time. By capturing the sun’s energy directly as heat, solar thermal systems can deliver high-efficiency, low-carbon heat for businesses without adding any electrical demand onto the grid. It also helps that solar thermal technology delivers significantly more carbon savings per m2 compared to conventional solar PV panels.

For businesses, this translates into lower operating costs, greater energy independence and a quicker pathway to decarbonisation. For the wider system, it means reduced pressure on infrastructure and a more balanced approach to the energy transition.

None of this suggests that the grid is unimportant. On the contrary, it will remain central to our energy system. But it cannot carry the full weight of decarbonisation on its own.

The events of the past month have underlined the risks of over-reliance, whether on imported fossil fuels or on constrained infrastructure. The response should not be to double down on those dependencies, but to diversify how and where we generate and use energy.

That requires us to move beyond a default assumption that electrification is always the answer for net zero. In many cases, it will be. But in others, particularly when it comes to heat, there are more direct, efficient and scalable solutions available today. By embracing grid-edge technologies and giving heat the attention it deserves, we can reduce costs, improve resilience and ease the pressure on our energy systems. Just as importantly, we can do so in a way that supports, rather than competes with, the broader transition to net zero.

About the author:

Christophe Williams founded solar thermal manufacturer Naked Energy in 2009, after a career as an advertising executive. The company’s solar thermal and PVT collectors have been installed in more than 10 countries and sit on landmark sites including the British Library and the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hyde Park.