Grid delays and planning gaps top agenda at Onshore Wind 2026 as sector demands policy certainty

Onshore wind policy certainty is the defining demand heading into ERM‘s co-hosted Onshore Wind Conference 2026, with developers, lawyers and asset owners converging on Edinburgh to press the case that grid constraints, consenting delays and unclear market signals are now the primary brake on deployment, not the technology itself.

The conference, co-hosted by RenewableUK and Scottish Renewables on 1–2 September, will take place at the EICC Edinburgh. According to RenewableUK, over 1,000 attendees and 60 exhibitors are expected, numbers that put the scale of the sector’s mobilisation in sharp relief against the policy gaps it is still trying to close.

What industry voices are actually saying about onshore wind policy certainty

Scottish Renewables chief executive Angela Hepworth has set out perhaps the sharpest framing of the moment. The Strategic Spatial Energy Plan, she argues, ‘must provide a clear trajectory beyond 2030 that supports Scotland’s onshore wind opportunity and gives confidence in both new development and our existing fleet.’ That is a pointed request: not a vague call for ambition, but a demand for a dated, legible pathway that developers can price against.

Hepworth’s case rests on a foundation worth stating plainly. Scotland already has more than 10GW of onshore wind operating, supporting more than 16,000 jobs. The argument is not that the sector needs to be built; it is that a sector already at scale is being held back by policy misalignment across planning, grid, charging and market frameworks.

Shoosmiths legal director for energy and infrastructure Jacques Camilleri echoes the grid concern without softening it. Scotland has a significant pipeline capable of supporting further growth, he notes, but grid constraints, connection delays and wider market challenges continue to limit its potential. His warning to developers is operational as much as political: ‘Developers must increasingly align construction programmes with evolving grid connection requirements, while ensuring projects remain commercially viable as procurement, financing and delivery requirements evolve.’ That is a polite way of saying the goalposts keep moving, and someone has to absorb the cost.

Vattenfall UK head of onshore wind market development Matt Bacon adds transmission infrastructure, faster consenting and clear market signals to the list of requirements. In a Q&A for the conference’s show daily, he describes the UK as entering a new phase of onshore wind growth, with activity expected to increase in England while Scotland works through its existing pipeline. Grid availability, network constraints, planning timelines and radar interference are, in his view, the four biggest delivery challenges currently. His prescription: stable allocation rounds, clear policy signals and a predictable investment environment. Nothing here is new in concept; the persistence of the ask is the point.

Repowering moves from aspiration to operational reality

Alongside the new-build agenda, repowering is emerging as a concrete near-term opportunity across the UK’s roughly 17GW onshore wind fleet. Nadara UK head of development Finley Becks-Phelps describes repowering as an important part of the sector’s future pathway and a proven means of increasing output from some of the country’s best wind sites. Those sites carry a structural advantage: they already have planning history, access roads and, in many cases, grid connections. The question is whether the consenting and commercial frameworks will allow developers to realise that advantage efficiently.

ScottishPower Renewables has put a number on what repowering can look like at scale. The company has announced plans to repower Whitelee wind farm through a £1.5bn investment programme that could double top capacity to around 1GW+. Whitelee is already one of Europe’s largest onshore wind farms; a doubling of capacity from an existing, consented site represents exactly the kind of low-friction deployment the sector says it needs more of.

The broader message from the Edinburgh gathering is consistent: onshore wind policy certainty is not a political nicety but a commercial prerequisite. Investment decisions are being deferred, not cancelled, and the sector’s argument is that the pipeline exists, the sites are known and the technology is ready. The Strategic Spatial Energy Plan’s trajectory beyond 2030 will be the first real test of whether government has heard that case.