Solar PV deployment under the feed-in tariff remained steady during October 2015 despite forecasts of a substantial increase following proposed cuts, new figures released by DECC show.
However the Solar Trade Association has said that DECC’s figures are not an accurate picture of solar activity throughout the month and claimed its installers and distributors had indicated a two to three time increase to the run rate.
New data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released this morning revealed that 61.7MW of solar PV was installed under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) throughout October 2015, lower than the 84.5MW installed during September.
And in a separate dataset, DECC stated that 59MW was registered under the ROO-FIT designation. Preliminary accreditation under ROO-FIT was withdrawn on 30 September and a significant increase in applications was expected before the deadline.
David Pickup, business analyst at the STA, highlighted the backlog of pre-accreditation applications UK energy regulator Ofgem is currently processing, which is now said to run into a number of months.
Pickup said: “The DECC deployment data from October doesn’t indicate a big spike yet, although October was slightly higher than the three-month rolling run rates.
“We’ve confirmed with DECC officials that all of the 59MW pre-accredited standalone in October was applied for before the end of September, but that Ofgem is working through the backlog so didn’t get the numbers in by last month’s deadline.
“Our installers and distributors have indicated a two to three times increase in the run rate in the market, suggesting that this may come through in the next couple of months’ statistics.”
A spokesperson for the Renewable Energy Association (REA) commented that the ‘jump-up’ was lower than expected considering October was a degression month. They added that the following releases for November and December would provide a greater indication of activity in the solar market as delayed projects begin. They also claimed it would not be unusual for October’s figures to be revised at a later date to reflect the work not initially included in official figures.
According to DECC, overall deployment under the FiT stands at 4,222MW following almost 800,000 installations. As of the end of October 2015, solar PV represented 83% of installed capacity (3,506MW) and 99% of the total number of feed-in tariff installations.