The Department of Energy and Climate Change has appeared to have upgraded its 2020 solar forecast again, this time to 13GW.
During this morning’s energy and climate change oral questions session – which also saw energy secretary Amber Rudd confirm that there are no plans for future solar CfDs – Andrea Leadsom was quizzed on what the government is doing to help the solar industry in the wake of drastic subsidy cuts.
While Leadsom noted that the proposals, which fully came into force at the start of this week, would support a further 200,000 domestic installations she also said that the government has forecast for around 13GW of solar by 2020.
This would appear to be a significant upgrade on the previous 2020 forecast of 12GW, issued by Leadsom just three months ago.
That figure was also a significant increase on the estimate before that, compiled in August 2015, that the UK would reach 9.55GW of solar capacity by 2020.
If the estimates Leadsom quoted this morning are accurate, it would mean that DECC’s solar forecasts for 2020 have increased by more than 36% in the space of six months.
Solar Power Portal has contacted the Department of Energy and Climate Change to elaborate on the reasons behind the raised forecasts, but has yet to hear a response.