The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has doubled its estimate for solar deployment in the UK throughout Q1 2015, upgrading its total deployment forecast to 6.5GW.
Figures released by DECC late last week state that the UK had deployed 6,521MW of solar PV capacity by the end of March 2015, a significant increase on the 5.7GW capacity it originally forecast for the period in April.
The new figures take DECC’s total Q1 forecast to 1,285MW from an initial 614MW which, although ultimately more realistic than its previous estimate, still falls short of other figures suggested within the industry.
Research firm IHS estimated that 1.6GW had been added throughout the first quarter however other estimates have suggested the UK’s total deployment capacity at the end of the period could have stood at as much as 8GW.
The majority of the added capacity in Q1 predictably came from capacity commissioned and accredited under the Renewables Obligation and DECC has forecast that total capacity under the RO stood at 2.3GW at the end of Q1 2015, an increase of 15% (308MW) on Q4 2014 figures.
DECC also estimates solar PV capacity at the end of April to have stood at 6,562MW from almost 700,000 separate installations, an increase of just 41MW from the previous month’s total.
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