Womble Bond Dickinson Energy Outlook 2026: UK Energy Capacity Growth Lags Global Average Amid Rising Costs and Delays

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The global energy sector is facing mounting pressure as accelerating demand collides with grid constraints, rising project costs, and shifting government policies, according to Womble Bond Dickinson’s Energy Outlook 2026.

Based on insights from more than 650 senior leaders across energy companies, investors, service providers, and energy-intensive consumers worldwide, the research highlights the difficulty of delivering reliable energy to keep pace with the surging demand driven by electrification of heat and transport, AI, data centres, manufacturing growth, and extreme weather.

UK in focus:

• Challenging conditions for capacity growth: Despite rising demand globally, UK firms expect energy capacity to grow by 16% over the next 12-24 months, slightly below the 17% global average.
• Grid connection delays remain the primary barrier: Despite planned reforms, almost two thirds of UK firms cite grid-connection delays as their biggest barrier. Faced with these constraints, companies are shifting from a focus on greenfield projects to more diverse strategies, including balancing upgrades, M&A, partnerships, and retrofits.
• UK companies face more community opposition than other regions: More than 42% of UK firms report project delays due to nimbyism – significantly above the 32% global average.

Recommendations

In addition to its findings, the report sets out practical recommendations to help energy companies accelerate project delivery and reduce risk. These include early, collaborative planning with regulators and communities; building agile systems for policy and regulatory change; designing projects with investment attractiveness in mind; structuring projects to allow for effective dispute mitigation; and deploying AI to optimise assets and decision-making, underpinned by strong governance and accountability frameworks.

Chris Towner, Partner and UK Energy Sector Leader at WBD, added:

“The findings from our UK survey respondents make for worrying reading amid the rapidly approaching 2030 energy decarbonisation target. However, they will be no surprise to those in the industry: grid connection delays, rising project costs, and community opposition are consistently holding back capacity growth.

“Fortunately, we are sitting on significant untapped efficiency. Smarter use of existing infrastructure, combined with better data insights and AI-driven optimisation – including by energy-intensive consumers themselves – could transform how we balance the grid and unlock new capacity. Through agile project structures, early stakeholder engagement, and strategic use of technology, UK developers have a clear opportunity to transform these challenges into cleaner, more resilient, and investable energy.”

Contacts

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Milo Osborne-Young: [e-mail]