One of the things that you need to do when you're constructing a building is arrange for new utility connections. Sometimes there's enough capacity to support what you're building and sometimes the capacities need to be upgraded (which usually becomes the responsibility of the developer).

But according to this recent Financial Times article, some new applicants in west London are now being told that there won't be "sufficient electrical capacity for a new connection" until, oh I don't know, maybe 2035. And it could affect all new housing projects with 25 or more units.

This is a pretty wild piece of news. And it certainly won't be good for overall housing supply. The three west London boroughs that are being impacted by this capacity issue were responsible for about 5,000 new homes between 2019-2020. That's about 11% of London's total housing supply.

So what and who is to blame for this? The Greater London Authority is saying that data centers are at least partially responsible. Too many new data centers in the area with high electrical loads.

I don't know exactly what is going on here (maybe some of you do), but now feels like a good time to turn our attention to solar power. I recently visited a large 3,000 panel rooftop installation here in the Greater Toronto Area, and so naturally there is a blog post in the works. Stay tuned.

The United Nations and Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently published a report covering global trends in the renewable energy space for 2017. 

Here are some of their key findings:

- 2016 was a record year in terms of renewable power capacity installed worldwide. This includes wind, solar, biomass and waste-to-energy, geothermal, small hydro, and marine sources.

- The share of global electricity generated from renewable sources rose from 10.3% (2015) to 11.3% (2016).

- However, overall investment in renewables declined in 2016 for two main reasons. Costs went down (good news). And China and Japan exhibited a dramatic slowdown in terms of investment activity (bad news).

- Acquisitions of renewal assets, such as wind farms and solar parks, hit a new peak at $72.7 billion.

- A number of promising new pricing records set in 2016: $29.10 per MWh for solar in Chile and $30 per MWh for onshore wind in Morocco.

- In one year, the cost of solar generation dropped on average about 17% and onshore wind dropped about 18%.