Energy Infrastructure Permitting Reforms Podcast

Solar, batteries, wind, data centers, roads, and water systems are not separate conversations. They are all infrastructure. To build more projects, public affairs and community engagement must begin with land acquisition and continue throughout the entire development lifecycle. https://lnkd.in/g4vz5T2x

Most infrastructure policy announcements are noise. Here is how to spot the signal. Here is what most investors get wrong about permitting reform: they view it as a secondary administrative hurdle. The reality is that in 2026, permitting velocity is the primary determinant of your risk-adjusted return. Regulatory bodies are shifting from opaque, manual reviews to transparent, KPI-driven frameworks. We are seeing a legislative mandate to accelerate grid-adjacent assets—like storage and charging infrastructure—embedded directly into frameworks like the European Grid Package. Jurisdictions that digitize these pipelines are fundamentally lowering the cost of capital by eliminating the binary "permit-denied" risk. What the smart money is doing: they are re-rating assets based on their location within "high-velocity" regulatory zones, essentially pricing in the speed of the approval process as a core component of the project's internal rate of return. For allocators: prioritize jurisdictions that have codified measurable KPIs for permitting efficiency, as these represent significantly lower execution risk. Read the full analysis: https://lnkd.in/gekNG-EW — Arterra Research #InfrastructurePolicy #PermittingReform #GridModernization #RegulatoryRisk #EnergyTransition #InfrastructureInvesting

Today's entry looks at the latest solar decision, the revised National Policy Statement (NPS) for Ports and an update to the Planning Inspectorate's interactive projects map. https://lnkd.in/eQMVQK5j

This week’s infrastructure planning blog by Mustafa Latif-Aramesh looks at the One Earth Solar Farm decision and the revised Ports NPS.

Solar, batteries, wind, data centers, roads, and water systems are not separate conversations. They are all infrastructure. To build more projects, public affairs and community engagement must begin with land acquisition and continue throughout the entire development lifecycle. https://lnkd.in/gntSnAYJ

The Infrastructure Planning Blog - for me at least - has become the definitive running record of consenting reform in this country, and Blog 58 is yet another example of a post other will be citing. For the authoritative account of the new DCO guidance suite, the section 172 judgment and the Dean Moor decision, read it there first. What it records, and this is worth stating plainly, is the transmission of Fingleton doctrine into the general Planning Act 2008 regime. Recommendation 25 in the consultation position. Recommendation 13 in the treatment of residual environmental information at acceptance. Recommendation 27 in "minded to" letters. Recommendation 28 in the promised return of Model Provisions. The Taskforce's Interim Recommendation Report concept repurposed as the IAPI. Three things I would add from where I sit. From defence. The regime has been improved for projects inside it and left untouched for those outside it. Crown development on the defence estate remains the least coherent consenting route attached to the most acute national interest, and no amount of guidance on acceptance thresholds reaches it. Proportionality will have arrived in the civil regime years before it reaches the estate that carries the deterrent. From energy. The opt-out direction is the instrument that matters. Vague criteria are not a drafting failure, they are retained discretion over which projects sit inside the Act at all. Read alongside the EN-7, EN-6 and GDF NPS reviews, and against a Scottish regime the Planning Act does not reach, the centre of gravity is shifting from policy to selection, and from selection to territory. From constitutional law - I’m engrossed in comparative legal tensions that endure across the UK and in Scotland - Soft law is dissolving an accretion Parliament never enacted, using an instrument Parliament never passed. Right in substance, and precisely as reversible as the temperament that produced it. The section 172 judgment is the counterweight rather than a footnote: lighten the process, but coercive power against the citizen must still be specified. Dean Moor makes the companion point, that national interest does not net off against a specific statutory duty. I will set this out properly in an article shortly.

As battery energy storage projects become increasingly common across New York, municipalities and developers are navigating how these facilities should be treated under local zoning laws. A recent court decision provides important guidance, concluding that the public utility variance standard applies to a battery energy storage project. Jacob H. Zoghlin examines the decision and its potential impact on future energy infrastructure projects. https://buff.ly/DzlUDf5

The latest TLT LLP Infrastructure planning blog is out, written this week by my colleague Mustafa Latif-Aramesh It covers an analysis of the latest DCO decision, for the One Earth Solar project on the Notts/Lincs border and the revised Ports National Policy Statement. Here it is: https://lnkd.in/eQcCCC3B .

The framework, which has a total potential value of up to 640 million, will support the delivery of electricity infrastructure projects across National Grid’s UK operations. United Infrastructure Ltd #IndustryNews

Énergie NB Power has signed an agreement with the Mactaquac Improvement Partnership to advance the civil work component of the Mactaquac Life Achievement Project (MLAP). This is a milestone on the path to keep the generating station in operation as one of New Brunswick’s most critical sources of electricity. The agreement is with the Mactaquac Improvement Partnership, a consortium of Aecon Group Inc., FlatironDragados and Green Infrastructure Partners. https://lnkd.in/gq7mJzCR