Recent Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) figures show that solar electricity generation almost doubled over the course of last year, with almost 5GW of capacity at the end of 2014 – up from 2.8GW at the end of 2013. This is enough power to supply the equivalent of 1.5million homes.
The statistics reflect steady growth in the UK solar industry and rapidly falling costs, much of which is occurring in the large-scale solar sector.
This means Britain now boasts over 650,000 solar PV installations across a wide variety of sites – homes, offices, schools, churches, warehouses, farms, police stations, train stations and even a bridge – Blackfriars Bridge in London.
The Bridge, opened January 2014, is an iconic solar landmark spanning the River Thames in the centre of London. The solar panels installed on the roof meet half of the station’s annual energy needs.
Paul Barwell, CEO of the Solar Trade Association commented: “We are now well underway to a million solar installations, of all shapes and sizes, across the country. This is a world class achievement and is testament to the hard work of Britain’s several thousand solar businesses, almost of all of them small and medium sized companies, who are all at the forefront of a solar transformation as the technology steadily becomes one of the cheapest sources of clean, home-grown power.”
In addition, to Blackfriars, there are almost 13,000 solar installations across London, sitting atop roofs, quietly generating clean solar electricity. This map shows all the solar sites installed by Solarcentury over the last 15 years.
See here for the full STA press release.
See here for the Blackfriars case study.