With support under the renewable obligation (RO) scheme closing for solar pojects over 5MW at the end of Q1 this year, a big rush was to be expected. The industry has had plenty of practice with previous reductions in support.
Solar Power Portal has collated all the stories written which detail capacity installed before the deadline. The figures below show mammoth growth but come with some (well, many!) caveats.
The first is that many of the figures reported by venders and service providers such as inverter manufacturers and grid connection firms, will be covered by reports from developers. The develper and EPC figure alone offers a better idea of what went in but covers just 11 companies. In addition, Lightsource has only reported what it installed in March, not the entirity of Q1.
If you don't see your company's efforts here, let us know through the usual channels.
Developers and EPCs (1,299MW):
Lightsource connects 300MW of solar in March alone (+300MW)
BayWa r.e. beats ROC deadline with four new solar farms (85MW)
Abakus BYes solar UK completes 56.4MW portfolio for Low Carbon
Martifer Solar connects five solar farms ahead of RO deadline (57.8MW)
SunEdison and Terraform connect 97MW UK portfolio in Q1
Lark Energy’s Q1 connections reach 91MWp
Athos Solar completes trio of UK solar farms (44.1MW*)
Inazin connects 76MW of capacity ahead of RO deadline, breaks 200MW milestone
First phase of 50MW Norfolk solar project connected to the grid (32MW)
Vogt solar added 132.4MWp capacity in Q1 Push Energy adds six solar farms to portfolio (max. 92MW**)
Grupotec Renewables to complete 12 solar farms before RO cut off (186MW)
Conergy installed 105MW in Q1
Hive Energy connects 123MW
Financers (118.6MW):
Capital Stage expands UK solar portfolio (15MW)
NextEnergy UK drive to continue after new acquisitions (55.4MW)
Foresight Solar Fund targets more acquisitions after refinancing (48.2MW***)
Suppliers and contractors (2.06GW):
DragonIS breaks 500MW connection barrier in ROC rush
Innergy exceeds 600MW of deliveries as ROC deadline passes
Schneider Electric more than doubled its UK capacity in Q1 (300MW)
Power Electronics exceeds 1.2GW connection milestone (600MW)
Huawei inverters add 62.5MW to UK deployment
*Glebe 34MW double-counted
**Some of the 92MW completed in Q4 '14