2014 saw an incredible step forward for the UK solar industry with the overall installed solar capacity almost being double that of the previous year’s capacity from 2.8 GW to 5 GW.
The contributions came from all walks of life; domestic solar grew and expanded from single properties to entire communities and community controlled areas. Business solar developed solar installations for small, medium, large and even extra-large businesses showing its wide array of suitable applications. Industry solar or more specifically solar farms, the largest of the solar installations used in the UK have shot up in popularity and are capitalising on UK’s open landscape areas and providing a second revenue stream for the UK’s struggling farming industry.
Solar Power has garnered a lot of attention year after year and naturally as news spreads of the benefits to individuals and companies alike the popularity will continue to increase, but the clear winner in providing incentive for the renewable energy source over recent years has to be the Feed In Tariff (FiT) scheme that offers a guaranteed return on your investment and a handsome one at that. The FiT provided a viable reason for the everyday man or women to invest in a profit producing renewable energy that was quick to install and easy to maintain.
After providing the much needed incentive and maybe more importantly the attention to the solar industry it won’t be long before the FiT is retired and the return on investment won’t be as appealing, that is unless the costs of a solar panel installation are able to be reduced as expected within 5 years to be on par with gas prices for domestic and industry solar.
2014’s Solar PV installations included homes, parks, offices, carports, schools, community areas, churches, warehouses, farms, bike sheds, police stations, train stations and… a bridge.
