Rooftop solar installations double in a year to post-subsidy record

Solar Energy UK reported on 24 February 2023 that 130,596 rooftop solar installations were registered with MCS in 2022, more than twice the number recorded in 2021 and a post-subsidy record¹. The figure is almost the same as the totals for 2019, 2020 and 2021 combined, and represents the greatest number of smaller-scale systems installed in any year since 2015¹.

The data covers all solar photovoltaic systems with a generating capacity of up to 50 kilowatts registered with MCS, the standards organisation for homegrown renewable energy and heating technology. That range takes in all domestic and most commercial rooftop systems, but excludes warehouse roofs and solar farms¹. January 2023 set a new post-subsidy monthly record of 16,043 MCS registrations, three times the number seen a year earlier¹. The previous record monthly rate was set in December 2015, after which the Feed-in Tariff for domestic-scale solar was cut sharply; payments for new systems ended at the end of March 2019¹.

The number of MCS-certified contractors rose by 780 over the year, more than double the growth seen over 2020-21¹. Solar Energy UK said growth came despite restricted availability of equipment, an acute skills shortage and the Electricity Generator Levy¹. There are now more than 1,265,000 registered solar installations across the UK, about 1.1 million of them on homes, and the body estimates the UK has at least 15GW of solar capacity, two thirds on the ground and the remainder on residential and commercial roofs¹.

Average installation size also grew. The average MCS-registered installation in 2022 was 4.34 kilowatts, rising to 4.79kW in January¹.

"The rapid increase in solar power sales is great news for the economy, public pockets, net zero and of course for energy security too. Solar is surely one of the fastest-growing sectors in the UK right now."

MCS Chief Executive Ian Rippin said the growth highlighted the appetite for solar PV and gave some insight into the growing reliance on home-grown energy in the UK¹.

Why it matters for households

The figures describe a market moving without subsidy. The Feed-in Tariff, which once paid owners for the electricity their panels generated, closed to new applicants at the end of March 2019, so the 2022 and January 2023 volumes were installed on the economics of the systems themselves rather than a guaranteed payment¹. Solar Energy UK attributes the demand to the energy price crisis and consumer interest in a more sustainable lifestyle, and links the growing average system size to swifter payback periods created by expensive grid electricity¹. For a household, that points to the same arithmetic: a system offsets units that would otherwise be bought at retail prices, and the larger the system, the more units it can offset. What a household is paid for exporting surplus power is a separate matter, governed by the Smart Export Guarantee rather than the closed Feed-in Tariff, and the sources do not give export rates. The sources also do not report installation prices, so the cost of a system in 2022 or 2023 is not stated here.

What happens next

Solar Energy UK said the data indicates the current pace of installation will have to double again for consumer-scale systems to match the number needed to meet the target set for all solar power in the Government's Energy Security Strategy, which it described as clearly achievable¹. Chris Hewett said that with global investment in photovoltaic manufacturing, the Skidmore Review's call for a "solar revolution", high energy bills and the climate crisis, there is every expectation that this will be fulfilled¹. No further dated steps are given in the source.

Sources1 cited

1. Rooftop solar power installations double in a year, solarenergyuk.org