The 700 projects include wind and solar farms, battery storage, gas and hydro plans

More than half the renewable energy projects needed to meet the government’s clean power targets by 2030 are now able to plug into the electricity grid after years of delay, according to the system operator.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) has offered more than 700 clean energy projects in Great Britain a grid connection date since the start of the year, after a two-year process to unblock a bottleneck that threatened to delay projects into the 2030s.

Australia leads world in residential solar per capita with 22GW installed but commercial and industrial sector has deployed only a quarter of that

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia’s revolution in rooftop solar has left behind commercial and industrial buildings, where installations have lagged far behind homes, according to new analysis.

Australia leads the world in residential solar on per capita terms, with 22GW installed as of last December. But businesses have only installed about a quarter of that – 5.6GW – despite consuming more electricity than households, a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has found.