Overview of PV Market in United Kingdom

Solar Energy is the most popular renewable energy source worldwide. Based on 2015 global report, United Kingdom is considered the fourth country in the solar energy capacity. United Kingdom has achieved great milestones in the solar energy sector with 12% of renewable electricity capacity and 2.9% of renewable electricity generation. Solar PV installations have risen by 70% between July 2012 and July 2013 to reach total installed power of 2.4 GW in 2013 between 1.7 GW as small domestic scale under the Feed in Tariff Policy and 0.2 GW as large scale (UK Renewable Energy Roadmap Update, 2013).

The United Kingdom has been contributed as one of the top ten countries in the solar energy by adding 2.4 GW of solar PV capacity in 2014 and 3.7 GW in 2015 to reach 9.1 GW power capacities by the end of 2015. Solar energy has boomed its exposure in the United Kingdom as a domestic source of energy as more than 125,000 of UK households have installed solar panels on their rooftops. Solar energy has increased significantly by 30% from 2.7 TWH in the third quarter of 2015 to reach 3.5 TWH in the third quarter of 2016. Solar energy can be the optimum solution not only to achieve the 15% of 2020 plan, but also to achieve the 26-32% of carbon emissions reduction plan as the households are responsible for 27% of carbon emission of The United Kingdom. Installing solar systems on each household rooftop will ease the burden of carbon emissions reduction (Renewables 2016 Global Status Report, 2016)

Solar energy is one of the key renewable energy sources that can create the balance of the energy mix in The United Kingdom as it is versatile and scalable for a wide range of locations including domestic and commercial buildings. In addition, PV technologies have achieved higher efficiency and lower costs in short time. The government has also encouraged the solar energy investment through the Feed in Tariff policy that has attracted many investors to go in the solar business. Solar energy capacity is expected to reach 20 GW installed power with electricity generation of 18 TWH by 2020 (UK Renewable Energy Roadmap, 2013).