Gridlock Why it can take 11 years to connect solar farms to the network

On the south bank of the Mersey, Britain's first factory dedicated to manufacturing electric vehicles may one day be powered exclusively by wind and solar farms.

- Jillian Ambrose

Stellantis, the European carmaker that owns the Ellesmere Port site, has begun work to fit 4 megawatts of solar power capacity across 500 sq metres of its rooftop space, enough to power the equivalent of 8,000 homes.

Those panels will help to cut the emissions from the factory, making its Vauxhall, Peugeot and Citroën vehicles even greener. The spare electricity it generates could help to make Britain's power grid greener too - but not for another decade.

Stellantis is one of many manufacturers to have been told that it faces a lengthy delay to connect its onsite renewable energy to the local power grid, with a connection not likely until 2035.

Diane Miller, the plant director at Stellantis Ellesmere Port, said: "This delay means that our substantial solar array won't be able to provide surplus clean energy to the UK grid and we are faced with very substantial additional costs to install storage batteries and other mitigation measures."