Solar PV capacity in the UK continued to grow steadily through the first three quarters of 2012, driven by the high uptake of the feed-in tariff, according to government figures.
Statistics released at the end of last year by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) show that total PV capacity in the UK at the end of Q3 2012 stood at almost 1.6GW.
This represented 11% of all renewable electricity generation capacity in the UK, and was an increase of 169MW on the previous quarter’s total.
And compared to the same quarter last year, the level of PV capacity in the UK has more than tripled from 489MW.
The paper said the increases were due to uptake of the UK's feed-in tariff.
However, the growth in capacity between Q2 and Q3 2012 was slower than in 2011, increasing only 170MW compared to 277MW in 2011.
Overall the DECC figures show that renewables' share of total generation in Q3 2012 was 11.7%, an increase of 2.4% points on the same figure at the end of Q3 2011, when renewables accounted for 9.1% of UK generation.