Extreme weather frequently causes major disruptions in UK transport and energy systems. Heavy snowfall often leads to school closures, roads grinding to a halt, rail services and flights severely disrupted or cancelled and even power cuts. Successive heatwaves cause railway tracks to buckle and overhead lines to sag , resulting in slow or cancelled services and an increased risk of derailment and infrastructure failures.
Author
- Erica E.F. Ballantyne
Senior Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management, University of Sheffield
Likewise, geopolitical conflicts expose vulnerabilities in the global energy supply. The 2026 disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz , a maritime corridor that is responsible for around 25% of the world's oil shipments , resulted in surging crude oil prices and fuel shortages. This has driven up the cost of consumer goods and services (including everyday products and airline fares) as transport and shipment costs have risen sharply due to fuel price volatility.
Together, extreme weather and geopolitical conflicts put the UK grid under pressure. Building a more resilient transport network and energy system involves developing ways to power off-grid EV charging using renewable energy sources that also make financial sense.
In the last 12 months to July 2026, transport prices rose by 3.6% in the UK . Air fares increased too , with long-haul routes rising by 31.7% compared with a rise of 20.9% a year ago.
When modern transport networks are put under extreme strain, supply chains break down and access to essentials (food, healthcare, education) become limited. Our transport infrastructure and logistics supply chains were built for a stable environmental and energy baseline that no longer exists.
Transport, energy security and environmental adaptation are all connected, so severe challenges from climate extremes and geopolitical shocks affect both energy prices and accessibility. Transport systems need to adapt to be resilient to these threats. This requires a shift away from just fixing issues as they occur, towards proactively designing energy-resilient transport systems.
Building energy resilience
The UK needs to invest in upgrading its transport network and energy infrastructure. This includes adapting for extreme weather. For example, replacing steel railway tracks with heat-tolerant rail alloys, and planting more trees and hedges along city transport routes to combat overheating in cities due to extreme heat.
Encouraging more opportunities for freight transport to shift between rail, road, and micro-mobility modes is also important. For example, e-cargo bikes can help to reduce the number of vans that dominate last-mile delivery in urban areas. These transport mode changes would help to bypass congested road corridors that are affected by extreme weather, and also reduce the reliance on volatile fossil fuel supplies.
Road transport has historically been dominated by fossil fuel propulsion. Petrol and diesel vehicles accounted for 87.8% of the UK's vehicle population in 2025 . The transition to more electric vehicles (EVs) requires an increasing amount of electrical energy, traditionally supplied by the power grid.
As part of a project called Fever (Future electric vehicle energy networks supporting renewables), my current research supports the UK's ambitions for increased EV uptake as part of the transition to achieving zero emissions by 2035.
The UK's grid is under pressure to achieve net zero by 2050. As demand for electricity to power our transport systems increases, alternative clean energy sources are required to mitigate against climate-related shocks. Heatwaves can paralyse the electrical grid as demand for energy surges for use in cooling and refrigeration systems. Such peak demand surges reduce the availability of energy to charge a growing electric vehicle fleet.
To overcome these challenges, my colleagues and I are investigating how to design, develop and facilitate 100% renewably powered off-grid EV charging. Using onsite solar and wind generation, paired with hybrid energy storage systems, can enable EVs to recharge without needing to draw energy from the electrical grid.
We are also determining the payback period for investing in these solutions under different market conditions. This will help ensure that off-grid systems can be both financially viable and environmentally sustainable.
Using an off-grid EV charging system will help to shield both private EV drivers and commercial EV fleet operators from the impacts of unpredictable climate and energy crises. For businesses running electric van fleets, the use of an off-grid charging station can help keep vehicle fleets running when heatwave-induced grid blackouts make vehicle charging impossible. Charging off-grid also insulates transport and delivery operations from fossil fuel price swings.
By decoupling fleet transport operations from volatile fossil fuels and fragile power grids through off-grid electrification opportunities, transport networks can adapt to future scenarios without disruptions from climate and geopolitical shocks.
Erica E.F. Ballantyne receives funding from UKRI and EU. The FEVER project is funded by the EPSRC.
