More than 65MW of domestic rooftop solar was deployed in November alone as the rush to install systems prior to the government’s feed-in tariff reset intensified, official statistics have shown.
Data released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change this morning shows that 65.3MW of rooftop solar was deployed last month, roughly 72% up on the figure deployed in November last year and a 40-month high.
The deployment figure is also up slightly on that recorded in September this year before the most recent FiT degression.
Almost 21,000 installations up to 4kW in size were made throughout the period, 74% up on the 11,980 installations within the same size band made in November 2014.
The increase in deployment means that almost 800,000 MCS-accredited installations have been made under the feed-in tariff scheme, totalling around 3.6GW in generation capacity, with an even greater surge expected for this month.
However the extent of deployment caps to be imposed as part of DECC’s reset of the feed-in tariff has been hammered home by the increase. The consultation response revealed last Thursday showed that DECC is to limit quarterly deployment to 15-16,000 installations throughout 2016; 6,000 fewer installs than were made in November alone.
There was also a significant increase in the amount of solar connected under the feed-in tariff’s standalone band, which looks set to be the hardest hit under the new regime with rates on offer of just 0.87p/kWh.
A total of 272MW of standalone solar was connected in November – almost all (97%) of it pre-accredited.