Solar and battery storage infrastructure is a critical component of the transition to cleaner energy, driven by net-zero ambitions and growing concerns surrounding the stability of access to fossil fuels.
The rapid expansion of solar farms across the UK and Europe should be celebrated as one of the region's most significant infrastructure success stories. Yet, if this is to continue, it must be acknowledged that as deployment continues to scale at pace, so too does the risk landscape surrounding these facilities.
Unlike more traditional critical infrastructure, many legacy renewable energy sites were not designed with extensive security in mind. Furthermore, sites are typically geographically spread, with few on-site staff and located in isolated, remote areas. That requires a proactive and prevention-first approach to risk mitigation that combines intelligence-led assessment, visible deterrence, rapid response, and options for continuous adaptation.
The emerging threat landscape
From organised cable theft to repeat site targeting and growing requirements from insurers, today’s renewable energy assets face a level of exposure many operators have not fully accounted for.
What may have initially been viewed as a minor threat from opportunistic offenders stealing high-value materials for profit has now become a systematic and strategic threat orchestrated by organised criminal groups (OCGs).
Analysis from DeterTech's crime intelligence analysts highlights a dramatic escalation in criminal activity affecting solar farms across the UK and Europe. In the past 12 months, there has been a 59% y/y increase in reported offences against solar, onshore wind, and battery storage facilities, with 169 reported offences in 2025. Alarmingly, this is not a short-term spike. At the same time, economic pressures are amplifying the risk. Copper prices have risen by around 25% since late 2025, significantly increasing the incentive for theft from energy infrastructure sites.
DeterTech works closely with the police and has a data sharing agreement with all 43 police forces in England and Wales, with the most recent data indicating the trend will continue into the rest of 2026 and beyond, rather than stabilising or reducing.
The industrialisation of solar crime
Evidence points to increasingly organised groups operating across multiple sites, often targeting solar farms as part of wider, planned campaigns. These groups are not only aware of asset layouts but are also becoming more sophisticated in how they identify and exploit vulnerabilities across dispersed infrastructure. With this boom, there is also an increased opportunity for crime, as sites are known to hold large amounts of valuable materials – including copper cable – which are highly attractive to OCGs.
The theft of copper cabling remains a primary driver, but the methods being used indicate a shift towards greater planning and logistical coordination. In some cases, incidents suggest offenders are operating within defined geographic clusters, targeting multiple sites within relatively short distances in a single campaign.
Exploiting infrastructure vulnerabilities
Solar farms present a unique risk profile. Their often-remote locations, extensive perimeter layouts, and distributed assets create multiple points of exposure that can be difficult to continuously monitor. Criminal groups are increasingly exploiting these characteristics, targeting grid connection points, cabling routes, and access infrastructure where disruption is both easier and more valuable.
As these methods evolve, the challenge for operators is no longer just about preventing theft but about anticipating coordinated attempts to exploit predictable weaknesses in site design and geography. Effective responses work on multiple levels: forensic marking solutions like SmartWater make assets traceable and harder to sell on, undermining the criminal incentive at source. Flexible units like the PID360 provide scalable, repositionable surveillance, monitored around the clock by DeterTech's specialist team of ex-police and highly trained professionals at their ARC facility in Scotland. Combined with AI-powered threat detection, this integrated approach delivers an average response time of just 47 seconds.
A growing operational and financial risk
The convergence of rising commodity values, expanding infrastructure, and increasingly organised criminal behaviour is creating a materially higher risk environment for the renewable sector. If current trends continue, the implications extend beyond asset loss. Repeated disruption can delay energisation timelines, increase insurance costs, and undermine confidence in project delivery at a time when rapid deployment is critical.
The financial consequences of inadequate site security are becoming harder to ignore; beyond the direct cost of stolen assets and operational downtime, insurers are increasingly factoring security into coverage decisions and premium pricing. This means under-protected sites may face higher premiums or reduced coverage at the worst possible time. DeterTech's recently announced partnership with Gallagher Insurance reflects this shift, formally recognising that robust, intelligence-led site protection is not just an operational consideration, but a direct driver of insurability and long-term project economics. Operators who invest in proactive protection stand to benefit accordingly.
Conclusion
Solar energy will remain central to the UK and Europe's energy strategy, but its rapid growth is now being matched by a rapidly evolving security challenge. To combat this issue, it is imperative that professionals responsible for renewables sites are aware of the risks, are appropriately prepared, and that sites have strong security in the event of an attack. Addressing this requires a shift in approach: from reactive responses to proactive, intelligence-led security strategies capable of identifying patterns, anticipating threats, and disrupting organised activity before it impacts critical infrastructure.
Written by Matthew Uttley, Sector Lead at DeterTech.
For more news and technical articles from the global renewable industry, read the latest issue of Energy Global magazine.
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