July feed-in tariff deadline triggers 31MW solar rush

The UK solar industry has installed a record 31MW of new solar capacity ahead of a reduction in feed-in tariff (FiT) support for solar on 1 July.  

During the last week of June 5,694 sub 50kW solar systems were registered, representing a 137% increase from the previous week’s level of installs – a yearly high of 13MW.

The week ending 30 June saw 15.84MW of solar installed in the 0-4kW tariff band, up from just over 9MW the week before. Installations in this segment have traditionally dominated the weekly statistics, with 77% of all installs registered below 50kW falling in the 0-4kW tariff band.

However, installations in the 10-50kW segment hit the highest level since July 2012 with 14.2MW completed before the available FiT rate dropped from 13.03p/kWh to 12.57p/kWh.    

Installations in the >4-10kW have continually struggled to gain traction in 2013, never installing more than 1MW in a single week. The latest figures reveal that just over 2MW of capacity was installed in the >4-10kW tariff band in the run up to 1 July.   

The dramatic rise in installation numbers was due to the available FiT rate for the three smallest tariff bands (0-4kW, >4-10kW and >10-50kW) degressing automatically by 3.5% on 1 July. Despite the relatively poor performance of the lowest three tariff bands they were automatically cut by 3.5% under DECC’s controversial automatic degression mechansism.

The full feed-in tariff rates from 1 July, 2013 can be viewed below:

The full weekly statistics for sub 50kW solar photovoltaic installations and capacity installed can be viewed here.