Domestic solar installations climb to 7MW a week

The latest solar installation figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) show a marked increase in domestic-scale solar installations over the last month.

For the week ending 3 March, 1,849 installations were registered in the 0-50kWp band, accounting for 6.98MW of new capacity. The table below shows the development of the market over the last month:

Installations in the 0-4kW band continue to dominate the statistics, accounting for 94.6% of systems installed in the week. The largest 10-50kW band has traditionally struggled, yet the latest figures show that 1.6MW of new capacity was added in the bracket – a significant increase from the lowly 1MW of capacity installed at the beginning of February.

The latest week’s figures show a small amount of green shoot growth, following the continued stabilisation of the market. The domestic market had struggled to gain traction following a series of damaging feed-in tariff cuts last year.

Talking to Solar Power Portal, Ray Noble, PV Specialist for the Solar Trade Association (STA) welcomed the increased figures, praising the efforts of the recent ‘Restarting the Market’ series of roadshows organised by Solar Power Portal's parent company Solar Media in stimulating activity. However, Noble was keen to point out that industry still has some way to go before it gets to 18-20MW a week – a figure he believes will support a flourishing UK PV market.

DECC recently announced the solar FiT rates for the period beginning 1 May, 2013. However, industry has been taken aback after the department also revealed that the new rate will only run until 1 July, not 1 August as expected. Commenting on the news, Paul Barwell, Chief Executive of the STA told Solar Power Portal that the STA would be strongly urging DECC not to degress the tariff in July if deployment remains at current levels.