The latest PV installation figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) show that <50kW installations have stabilised around the 4MW mark during July.
The initial rate of installs in July had fallen dramatically following a modest 3.5% degression to the feed-in tariff (FiT) rates at the end of June. However, July’s average weekly installation rate represents the lowest since the start of the year. In the run up to the degression, the solar industry was able to successfully sell against the cut as an effective call to action, resulting in an average of 14.4MW-a-week in June.
The rise and fall in installation figures may have been exaggerated by DECC’s decision to put forward the planned FiT degression date from August to July. The seasonal nature of solar’s demand and the recent heatwave may have also caused demand to spike more prominently.
For the week ending 21 July, 1,317 solar installations were registered on the database, representing 4.78MW of new capacity. Domestic-scale installations continue to dominate the <50kW segment with installations in the 0-4kW bracket representing 3.69MW of capacity – around 77% of all installation recorded. According to the statistics there were 29 and 31 installs in the 4-10kW and 10-50kW bands respectively.
DECC also released its latest sub-regional data for solar installations which shows that the South West and South East continue to lead the way with 68,693 and 54,979 solar arrays registered respectively.