Interconnection First

Interconnection First: Do Projects Live or Die at the Substation Queue?

Q3 2025 saw the solar conversation sharpen from scale to survivability. Energy Considered’s 5,000 KOLs mentioned solar 88 times this quarter, with leaders from fund managers and mainstream media focusing on a new chokepoint: interconnection queues. Berkeley Lab data shows active US queues approaching 2,600 GW, mostly solar and storage, while median waits in many markets now exceed five years, and a large share of projects are ultimately withdrawn.

As Wood Mackenzie’s Ed Crooks (Vice chairman of Energy, US) warns, “In particular, the difficulty of building new grid infrastructure is emerging as a critical threat to the surge in investment in wind and solar generation and battery storage planned as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act. Even before the act was signed into law, the number of projects waiting for grid connections has been soaring.”


Developers have responded with a substation-first approach screening for hosting capacity before buying land or signing offtake deals and by default hybridising solar with co-located batteries to share a single point of interconnection. Technical fixes (grid-enhancing technologies, dynamic line ratings, grid-forming inverters) are lowering upgrade needs, while regulators are pushing process reform: recent FERC orders require RTOs/ISOs to account for storage and GETs in studies and rethink cost allocation. As Michael Liebreich (Energy Analyst, Liebreich Assoc., UK) observed on the Cleaning Up Podcast, “Do you know, if you wanted to open up a new data centre in West London, when you’d get a firm grid connection? … 2035, I think.” His remark highlights how long connection waits now threaten both data centre development and the clean-energy projects meant to power them.

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Interconnection First: Do Projects Live or Die at the Substation Queue? - Quarter 3 2025

Case for tracking:

In Q3 2025, solar showed resilience by pivoting toward storage, faster interconnection, and local manufacturing while still expanding despite tariff and incentive uncertainty. At RE+, industry leaders described solar as a mature, resilient sector now putting batteries at the centre of project design, with state and local markets driving much of the momentum. On-the-ground progress continued, from C&I rooftops and community projects to large solar+storage hybrids in Arizona, proving execution remains strong. Global activity was led by the GCC with mega solar+storage plants and by Asia through manufacturing scale and deployment partnerships. Politics remains a wildcard, but the narrative has shifted from if solar will grow to how fast and in what storage-linked form.

Q1 and Q2 were dominated by speculation and saw record-scale project announcements, by Q3 the focus sharpened on storage-first builds and interconnection bottlenecks, making solar look less like an emerging sector and more like core energy infrastructure.

Volume of Mentions from Energy Considered’s Key Opinion Leaders:

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To continue reading this briefing and explore deeper insights, register for access to our Energy Insights Portal. Inside, you’ll find:

  • Extended editorial briefings with in-depth analysis and empirical data drawn from 5,000 of the world’s most influential commentators on the energy industry on key issues shaping the energy sector.
  • Monthly and quarterly data identifying and tracking how energy industry leaders are engaging with critical topics.
  • In depth research explaining why energy industry leaders are engaging with these key issues and providing the context and framework for further exploration.
  • Quantitative primary research conducted with responses from energy industry leaders on our panel, providing unique answers to the issues affecting the global energy industry.
  • Power BI dashboards offering dynamic exploration of 5,000 energy key opinion leaders, social and digital narrative analysed against 14 strategic and tactical energy industry metrics.
  • Expert interpretation of what these issues really mean to the industry and what decisions can be taken on the back of unprecedented empirical evidence.
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