The Department of Energy and Climate Change has claimed around 83MW of rooftop solar was deployed just before the regime changed in mid-January and revised its installation figures for December 2015.

Statistics released by DECC this morning claim that 19,938 MCS-accredited installations were made in January 2016, a substantial number considering that the feed-in tariff regime paused to new installations on 15 January with the new regime coming into effect earlier this month. The vast majority of that deployment – 18,433 installations – fell under the sub-4kW bracket associated with domestic installs.

The added deployment takes the total number of MCS-accredited installations to just under 840,000, with a total installed capacity of 3.1GW. The industry has also exceeded the 800,000 barrier for domestic installs, something which the Solar Trade Association’s David Pickup lauded as a “huge achievement that the industry should be proud of”.  

“There were no new commissioned installations in the commercial sector in January, highlighting the time lag between pre-accrediting and installing, and demonstrating the importance of the industry having forward visibility. We are pushing Ofgem and DECC to make sure the new feed-in tariff regime is run as transparently and efficiently as possible,” Pickup added.

Meanwhile DECC has also revised upwards the installation figures it published last month for December 2015. At the time DECC stated that nearly 23,000 installations were made throughout the month, but the department now claims that almost 24,000 systems were fitted (23,807).

October’s and November’s figures have also been repeatedly revised upwards in recent months as DECC’s reporting mechanisms continue to catch up.

Many within the industry remarked that the figures did not demonstrate an installation rush as large as had been expected, with others questioning whether or not DECC’s statistical release was wholly accurate.