Record amount of solar installed in August, annual figure up 77%

Energy regulator Ofgem has now released the UK installation numbers for the period 1-31^st August 2010, revealing a huge spike in figures. The details set out on the company’s website show that August was a record month in terms of solar photovoltaic installations.

Back at the beginning of August, the Solar Power Portal announced the installation figures for the period April 1 to July 31, which outlined that PV had significantly overtaken any other renewable energy source in those four months, hitting a total of 11.266MW since the feed-in tariff was introduced. The total figure for solar PV installations for this period was 4,457, 4,429 of which were domestic, six commercial, and one community.

From April 1-30^th total PV installations were 409 (0.979MW), for the same period in May they reached 942 (2.290MW), in June 1,406 (3.524MW) and by July the figures had climbed to 1,753 (4.592MW). Figures for August have almost tripled the amount in July, ascending to 3,642 (8.739MW). That’s an increase of 77% over the previous four months’ figures.

Of the installations, 3,606 (8.457MW) were residential, 12 (0.105MW) were commercial and 24 (0.176MW) were community. This highlights the UK’s large residential market, which is most likely being driven by the free installation offers provided by companies such as ISIS Solar, A Shade Greener and HomeSun.

The country’s regional split is outlined as follows:

This table shows that the South East lead the way for solar installations in August, overtaking the South West for the first time. Due to solar irradiation levels we can still see the slower uptake figures represented further north, however these are ever-increasing.

At this rate we could be on target for a huge megawatt figure by the end of 2010. Keep logging on to the Solar Power Portal as we’ll keep you up-to-date with the latest Ofgem figures as soon as they are released.