Solar Power in The United Kingdom - PV Commercialisation

PV Commercialisation

In August 2006 there was widespread news coverage in the United Kingdom of the major high street electrical retailers (Currys) decision to stock PV modules, manufactured by Sharp, at a cost of £1,000 per module. The retailer also provides an installation service.

The introduction of the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) in 2010 saw rapid growth of the UK photovoltaic market, with many thousands of domestic installations along with numerous commercial, community and industrial projects. On 13 July 2011, construction of the largest solar park in the United Kingdom was completed in Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire. The 4.9 MW free-field system was built just in seven weeks after being granted planning permission. The system will generate an estimated 4,860 MW·h of electricity (an average power of 560 kW) into the national grid each year. There are several other examples of 4–5 MW field arrays of photovoltaics in the UK, including the 5MW Langage Solar Park, the 5 MW Westmill Solar Farm, the 4.51 MW Marsten Solar Farm and Toyotas 4.6 MW plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire. The cuts to the feed in tariff made in the fast track review announced by DECC on 9 June 2011 mean that large arrays of solar photovoltaics are now a much less attractive investment opportunity for developers (especially for projects greater than 250 kW), so large field arrays such as these are unlikely to be built beyond the 1 August 2011 cut off date, at least not until 2012, when PV prices reduce somewhat - a utility scale solar farm is paid 8.9 p/kWhr generated.

• The world's largest PV manufacturer, Sharp Solar, has a facility in Llay near Wrexham.
• G42i is building (2007) the world's first commercial scale dye sensitized TiO₂ module plant.
• Solar Century offers BIPV modules to fit with standard UK concrete tiles.

Solar power use has increased very rapidly in recent years, albeit from a small base, as a result of reductions in the cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels, and the introduction of a Feed-in tariff (FIT) subsidy in April 2010. At the end of 2011, there were 230,000 solar power projects in the United Kingdom, with a total installed generating capacity of 750 megawatts (MW). By February 2012 the installed capacity had reached 1,000 MW. In 2012, the government said that 4 million homes across the UK will be powered by the sun within eight years. The government expects Britain to have 22 gigawatts of installed solar power capacity by 2020.

The first large solar farm in the United Kingdom, a 32 MW solar farm, began construction in November 2012. It is located in Leicestershire, and is expected to be completed before April 2013, when the feed in tariff for large systems will be reduced. It is located between the runways of the former military airfield, Wymeswold.