The UK solar industry far exceeded expectations last year, despite the disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak and the industry operating in its first full calendar year without access to any form of subsidy support. According to new figures released last week by trade body Solar Energy UK and Solar Media Ltd as part of a new partnership, the UK added 545MW of new solar capacity in 2020, up 27 per cent compared to 2019. Around 60 per cent of the new capacity came from ground-mounted PV systems with the remaining 40 per cent installed on rooftops, the majority of which was located on commercial and industrial buildings. The new capacity helped deliver a series of generation records for the sector with solar hitting a new all-time peak generation record of 9.68GW in April, while May saw solar supply 11 per cent of all electricity. The surge in new capacity meant that by the end of 2020 the UK boasted 13.9GW of solar capacity. Solar Energy UK and Solar Media Ltd said total capacity was now almost 500MW higher than existing government-released figures, suggesting the government’s data-collecting efforts “continue to be unfit for purpose, despite repeated industry calls for this to be addressed”.
Business Green 25th Jan 2021 read more »