The results of a survey of Solar Power Portal readers have found ongoing confidence in the UK market, but also a continuing migration towards a more diverse product offering and geographical spread.
Towards the end of 2016 SPP conducted its annual readership survey, which is used to both gauge the market’s position and guide our editorial coverage for the year ahead.
Around 200 individual readers responded to the survey, with nearly two-thirds (62%) expecting to continue to install solar PV in the UK throughout 2017. However an increasing number of readers also said they expected to derive more of their business from supplementary technologies, particularly – and unsurprisingly – energy storage (30%) and energy efficiency (26%).
Just 14% of readers said they would be actively engaged in the EV charging infrastructure market, perhaps providing an indication of a lack of confidence in domestic demand for the devices.
Meanwhile, 65% of respondents said that they saw opportunities in other geographies, and individual responses to the survey revealed a litany of destinations for UK solar expertise from Latin America to Africa.
The Republic of Ireland was a popularly-referenced target for UK solar companies but just 42% of readers said they expected to do business in the country this year. This could be a reference to the unlikelihood of deployment until 2018 with subsidy support yet to be determined or the likelihood of Ireland being particularly competitive.
The SPP survey also sought feedback from our readership on the editorial output, both on the website and the Inside Clean Energy magazine.
We’ve responded to that feedback, and the 53% of readers who wanted more storage-related news can find our new storage tab here. SPP will continue to cover all the latest UK storage market developments and collate them in one, easy-to-find location on the portal.
More than 40% of readers also wanted to see more product-related news on the site which the SPP editorial team will endeavour to feature throughout 2017.
And for those readers who haven’t the time to check SPP on a daily basis, Friday mornings will see the publication of a new feature for the site – our weekly solar digest – collating all the week’s top stories in bite-size format.
Solar Power Portal can also reveal that Sam Ballard from OST Energy was the lucky winner of a £100 Amazon voucher awarded for taking part in the survey.