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Analysis
Does flexibility risk widening the fuel poverty gap?
As flexibility markets expand across Britain's energy system, the financial rewards seems to be being realised mostly by households who can afford solar panels, batteries and smart meters. We look at whether renters, lower-income consumers and younger households, who NESO data shows are already under-represented in flexibility schemes, risk being left to cover a growing share of network costs while missing out on the benefits.
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Analysis
Future of Utilities Summit 2026: the industry's take on flexibility
Flexibility dominated this year's Future of Utilities Summit, with broad agreement that the technology has stabilised and none at all on where the economic case lies. Across the interview series, Sean Layerle, David Watson and Kate Mulvaney set out three different views of what stands between flexibility and the mainstream: risk appetite, consumer trust, and automation that removes the question entirely.
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Analysis
Future of Utilities - Expert Voices - Lennart Van Walsum - Global Solar Council
Lennart Van Walsum of the Global Solar Council brings a worldwide view to an industry he calls the "solar coaster," one prone to sharp swings as policy and incentives shift from market to market. He charts the UK's fall from more than 30,000 solar jobs to fewer than 2,000 and its current revival on the back of energy security, arguing that no further renewables build-out is viable without storage alongside.