Earth Day 2025: Our Power, Our Planet

Generation and consumption

At the heart of the energy transformation lies the electricity grid that connects power generation to consumption. Currently, the UK faces a pressing issue: a significant backlog of new real estate developments waiting to connect to the electricity grid with our latest research, using Grid IQ by Savills Earth, showing a demand of 27GW against an available capacity of 37GW. This discrepancy highlights a crucial challenge in modernising our energy infrastructure, as grid capacity has not kept pace with accelerating demand.

To embrace renewable energy sources and grant consumers more energy autonomy, collaboration among stakeholders, government, developers, and technology providers, is essential. Overcoming grid constraints and ensuring clean, reliable energy that is accessible to all, represents not only a technological shift but also a societal commitment to a greener future.

Clean Power by 2030

The overarching target is to achieve clean power by 2030, aiming for a net zero carbon energy system. Within this framework, clean power is defined as an electricity system where:

• Clean sources generate at least as much power as Great Britain consumes in total.
• Clean sources account for at least 95% of Great Britain’s total generation.
• The carbon intensity of electricity generation is below 50g CO2e per kWh by 2030. Currently, the UK emits 171g of CO2 per kWh, meaning there is a requirement for a 71% reduction.

Great Britain will need to generate sufficient clean energy to meet its total consumption, but production may not always align perfectly with demand. To bridge this gap, 5% of generation will come from gas plants equipped with carbon capture and storage to handle periods when demand exceeds clean supply. Additionally, energy storage will be deployed to mitigate these variations. Any excess clean power that cannot be stored will be traded, with the Government expecting Great Britain to become a net exporter of electricity.

The grid of the future

Across all our projects, whether in real estate or renewables, the primary question from clients is: ‘What are we going to do about power?’

We are shifting away from the traditional model of transmission and distribution, built on a foundation of baseload power from coal, nuclear and gas. With the last coal plant in the UK recently decommissioned after over 200 years, the grid must evolve into something far more complex. It needs to become bi-directional, highly flexible and supported by a raft of innovation, and it must all happen at an unprecedented speed.

We need to expand our renewable energy capacity, scale up the deployment of clean energy technologies, deploy energy storage solutions to balance supply and demand, and modernise the UK’s energy grid by integrating smart technologies. Distributed energy solutions on development projects, such as rooftop solar, battery storage and EVs can help enhance grid flexibility and resilience, and decrease the development risk associated with access to power.

Practicing what we preach

At Savills we have commenced a review of our supply chains, targeting reduced Scope 3 emissions and remain aligned with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Financial Times Stock Exchange for Good (FTSE4Good) Index, and the Race To Zero Campaign. Electricity purchased from renewable sources in Savills office spaces also increased to 48% in 2024, and 84 Green Building certifications are now in place at our offices.

Earth Day serves as a reminder of the power we hold to shape our planet’s future. By uniting around renewable energy and committing to clean electricity, we can ensure a sustainable world for generations to come.

Further information

Contact David Jackson or Marylis Ramos

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