Rooftop solar installations doubled in 2022

Rooftop solar installations hit almost 131,000 in 2022 – more than double the figure for 2021 and almost as many as the previous three years combined.

It is also the highest number of annual installations since Feed-in Tariff rates were slashed at the end of 2015. The subsidy scheme was subsequently closed to new applicants in 2019.

The data from the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) covers all solar photovoltaic systems with a generating capacity of up to 50 kilowatts (kW). This includes all domestic and most commercial rooftop systems, but excludes warehouse roofs and solar farms.

According to MCS, these installations exceeded 16,000 during January – more than three times the number for the same month in 2021 and the highest monthly tally since December 2015.

Solar Energy UK said there are now more than 1,265,000 registered solar installations in the UK, with 1.1 million of them on homes. It said the UK now has at least 15GW of solar generation capacity in total, with two thirds on the ground and the remainder on residential and commercial roofs.

The trade association said the MCS figures suggest that the size of installations is also growing. MCS-registered installations averaged 4.3kW in 2021, compared to 4.79 kW in January.

Solar Energy UK attributed the boom to the drastic increase in the cost of grid electricity following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with continuing reductions to the cost of solar panels, which have reduced payback periods.

It said this growth came despite the industry facing multiple headwinds, including the restricted availability of equipment, an acute skills shortage and the “poorly designed” Electricity Generator Levy introduced by the government last year to claw back windfall profits.

“The rapid increase in solar power sales is great news for the economy, public pockets, net zero and of course for energy security too,” said Chris Hewett, chief executive of Solar Energy UK. Solar is surely one of the fastest-growing sectors in the UK right now.

“The data indicates that the current pace of installation will have to double again for consumer-scale systems to match the number needed to meet the target set for all solar power in the government’s Energy Security Strategy, though that is clearly achievable, as it would be less than in 2011 and 2012, the height of the Feed-in Tariff era.”

Given the huge scale of investment in panel manufacturing, “colossal energy bills” and the growing evidence of the effects of climate change, Hewett said there is “every expectation that this will be fulfilled”.

MCS chief executive Ian Rippin said: “The growth we’ve seen highlights the appetite for solar PV and does give some insight into the growing reliance on home-grown energy in the UK. As electricity prices continue to rise, more people are turning to renewable solutions to generate their own power at home and it’s great to see increasing levels of confidence in solar.”

Solar installer Solarsense has separately revealed it saw a four-fold increase in commercial enquiries from the energy-intensive manufacturing sector in 2022, with the average scale of its projects growing by five-fold from 50kW to 250kW.

The company’s managing director Stephen Barrett, said: “We’ve been in the solar industry for more than 25 years and the current level of enquiries is unprecedented. The efficiency of solar panels has dramatically improved in the last few years and when combined with the huge reduction in installation costs and increase in energy prices, the financial returns are extremely attractive.

“We are now seeing payback periods for the technology as low as between 2-5 years which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. We were looking at payback periods of 100 years when we first started in the industry.

“We’re also finding that businesses which already have panels on south facing roofs are coming back to us as now east/west or even north facing aspects may be viable, given the energy crisis and high costs of energy from the grid.”

Barrett said he expects demand to continue growing in 2023 as the government’s Energy Bills Relief Scheme for businesses comes to an end.