The latest solar energy statistics from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) have revealed that the UK now has over 17GW of installed solar capacity.
As of the end of October 2024, the UK has a total of 17.2GW of solar generation capacity, a 1GW or 6.3% increase since October 2023. Across October 2024, 76MW of capacity was added across 20,102 new solar installations. Of these, 73% were on residential properties, representing 58MW of the installed capacity added. This broadly reflects the trend of UK solar, where the bulk of solar installations are domestic. However, domestic installations only make up around 30% of the UK’s total capacity, with approximately 5.2GW of solar generation coming from home rooftops.
As of the end of September 2023 (Q3 2024), at least 45% of UK solar capacity, totalling 7.71GW, came from ground-mounted or standalone solar installations, including two operational solar PV power plants accredited under the Contracts for Difference (CfD) mechanism. However, DESNZ estimates that approximately half of the UK’s unaccredited capacity comes from ground-mounted installations, meaning that roughly 55% of the UK’s total solar capacity comes from ground-mounted projects.
Across 2023, 196,760 new solar installations came online – the second highest in any recorded year, only beaten by 2011’s record of 208,586 installations. So far this year, 155,256 new installations have taken place, meaning that 41,504 installations will need to be completed in November and December of this year for 2024 to beat last year’s total – an unlikely but not impossible scenario.
What could 2025 look like for solar?
As we near the end of 2024, it is worth considering what the next year could look like for the UK’s solar sector – especially as 2025 marks the first year that will begin with a Labour government in over a decade.
Thus far, the Labour Party, and especially Secretary of State for DESNZ Ed Miliband, has been demonstrably more solar-positive than their predecessors, with Miliband’s almost immediate granting of Development Consent Orders (DCOs) for three solar projects, as well as the recent relaunch of the Solar Taskforce, being met with praise by the wider solar industry. However, Labour’s first Autumn Budget received a lukewarm response from the solar sector, particularly in relation to a lack of clarity on a potential solar mandate for new build homes.
Additionally, some in the industry are suggesting that solar targets set out by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) as part of the 2030 Clean Power Plan are not ambitious enough, with solar industry trade body Solar Energy UK describing the plan as showing a “concerning lack of ambition”, and criticising it for betraying a “limited understanding” of solar generation and battery energy storage system (BESS) technologies. Since then, Solar Energy UK has published research carried out by Durham University, which reveals that raising solar capacity targets from 47.4GW to 60GW could reduce energy costs by around 12%.
The recent encouraging success of the sixth auction round (AR6) of the government’s CfD scheme could encourage more significant and larger developments in 2025 and beyond. AR6 saw new records set for the solar sector, with 93 ground-based solar projects with a combined capacity of 3.3GW winning support.
