High power prices push solar capacity past 15GW

The UK’s solar generation capacity has passed 15GW after high power prices drove a surge installations over the first half of this year, according to new figures from Solar Energy UK.

The trade association said 556MW of solar capacity was added in the six months to the end of June, putting annual installations on track to exceed the 1GW deployed in 2016 when government subsidies were still available.

This included 164MW of residential rooftop installations, representing the fastest rate of deployment since the closure of the Feed-in Tariff subsidy scheme to new applicants. This was also more that the 153MW residential solar capacity installed over the whole of 2021.

Residential installations during the second quarter of 2022 hit 95MW – a three-fold increase when compared to the 36MW deployed during the same period last year.

Commercial installations, such as on factories and warehouses, totalled 192MW during the first half of 2022. This was just short of the 216MW deployed during the entirety of 2021. Installations during the second quarter totalled 97MW.

There were also 200MW of ground-mounted solar farms connected over the first half of the year. Of this, 140MW was connected during between April and June – almost triple the figure for the same quarter last year.

Despite supply chain pressures increasing costs, Solar Energy UK said the energy price crisis has made solar an increasingly attractive investment at all scales.

The trade body said costs for residential and large commercial installations have increase by 10 to 15% since last year, with prices for small domestic array of 2-5kW growing from around £1,510/kW to £1,684/kW. However, the price of power from the grid has risen by around a half over the same period.

“Rooftop solar power is as good an investment as it has ever been,” said Chris Hewett, chief executive of Solar Energy UK.

“The broader fossil-fuelled price crisis means that this is true even though rooftop solar’s ten-year price decline appears to have halted.”

He continued: “Overall, our assessment remains positive: Solar Energy UK’s Lighting the Way forecast showed the UK could – and needs – to deploy 15GW of rooftop solar by 2030 – and we are heading in the right direction.

“In a time of economic crisis, growth in UK solar has more than doubled in 12 months, and the trend will continue. This is cheap, clean, home-grown energy, providing lower bills, secure jobs and getting Britain off the hook of Russian gas.”