Solar photovoltaic is a renewable energy technology that utilizes sunlight in order to generate electricity. A photovoltaic system is comprised of one or multiple solar panels, made up of solar photovoltaic cells, and a solar inverter. Solar panels are either rooftop fitted or ground mounted and a whole plant may range in size from small-scale residential to utility-scale power stations, making this renewable energy particularly attractive to small homeowners.
Solar PV capacity and generation
Since 2004,
electricity production from photovoltaics in the United Kingdom has seen significant growth, increasing from just four gigawatt hours in 2004 to 13.3 terawatt hours in 2022. In that last year, electricity generation from solar peaked in the country. In total, the photovoltaic capacity installed in the UK reached 14.7 gigawatts in 2022, with England accounting by far for the largest share of
solar capacity in the country, with over 12 gigawatts installed.
United Kingdom's feed-in tariff
Policy schemes introduced by the British government, like the Feed-in Tariff, which ran from April 2010 to March 2019, were intended to encourage investments not only by supplying companies, but also individual households. Until March 2019, the majority of installed solar PV capacity under the
Feed-in Tariff were either newly built or retrofit plants of a size less than four kilowatts. The scheme was a major influence on the successful spread of solar power plants across the country. In the two years between 2009 and 2011 when it was first made available, the
number of solar PV sites grew 52-fold, reflecting
widespread support of the energy type among the public.
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