Solar power in the United Kingdom - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Solar power is a minor source of renewable energy

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. , about 200 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaic power have been installed in the UK, capable of producing about 200 gigawatt hours (GW·h) per year of electricity. In April 2010, the UK instituted a feed-in tariff

Feed-in Tariff

A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies. It achieves this by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers, typically based on the cost of generation of each technology...

, offering at least 36p

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

(US$0.60) per kW·h. In its first year, 77.8 MWp of photovoltaic capacity were installed — three times as much as in the previous year, but still only representing 0.1% of total electricity production. Solar thermal capacity to supply hot water was expected to grow to 25 MWth in 2006.

Solar Resource

The UK's insolation

Insolation

Insolation is a measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface area in a given time. It is commonly expressed as average irradiance in watts per square meter or kilowatt-hours per square meter per day...

is less than 120 W(th)/m² (2.9 kW·h/m²/day, or 1050 kW·h/m²/year) — a fraction of that in subtropical locales such as Spain

Solar power in Spain

Spain is one of the most advanced countries in the development of solar energy, since it is one of the countries of Europe with more hours of sunshine. The Spanish government committed to achieving a target of 12 percent of primary energy from renewable energy by 2010 with an installed solar...

and North Africa. The insolation in the south of the country however is comparable with that of much of Germany

Solar power in Germany

Germany is one of the world's top photovoltaics installers, with a solar PV capacity as of May 2011 of more than 18,000 megawatts .The German solar PV industry installed 7,400 MW from nearly one-quarter million individual systems in 2010, and solar PV provided 12 TWh of electricity in 2010, about...

, which is one of the biggest markets for photovoltaics in the world. Additionally, the higher wind speeds that can be found in the UK can cool PV modules, leading to higher efficiencies than could be expected at these levels of insolation.

George Monbiot

George Monbiot

George Joshua Richard Monbiot is an English writer, known for his environmental and political activism. He lives in Machynlleth, Wales, writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of a number of books, including Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain and Bring on the...

, an environmentalist seeking to replace fossil fuel

Fossil fuel

Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...

s with carbon-free sources of energy, opposes subsidies for solar power within the UK, "because the facts show unequivocally that this is a terrible investment."
On the other hand, Derry Newman, chief executive of Solarcentury

Solarcentury

Solarcentury is a business which designs and installs solar systems for buildings in the UK and continental Europe, and provides wholesale solar products.- History :...

, argues that the UK's "famously overcast weather does not make it an unsuitable place for solar power, as solar panels work on daylight, not necessarily direct sunlight."

History

In 2006, the United Kingdom had installed 12.5 MWp

Watt

The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...

of photovoltaic capacity represented 0.3% of the European total of 3.4GWp.

Due to an EU agreement to generate 15% of electricity from renewables by 2020, in June 2008 a new programme to encourage homeowners to generate their own electricity was announced, which will include a feed-in tariff.

PV commercialisation

In August 2006 there was widespread news coverage in the United Kingdom of the major high street electrical retailers (Currys

Currys

Currys is an electrical retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland and is owned by Dixons Retail plc. It specialises in selling home electronics and household appliances, with 295 superstores and 73 high street stores...

) decision to stock PV modules, manufactured by Sharp

Sharp Corporation

is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...

, at a cost of £

Pound sterling

1,000 per module. The retailer also provides an installation service.

The introduction of the Feed in Tariff 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

Newark-on-Trent

Newark-on-Trent is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands region of England. It stands on the River Trent, the A1 , and the East Coast Main Line railway. The origins of the town are possibly Roman as it lies on an important Roman road, the Fosse Way...

in Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

. The 5 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.

PV manufacture

The world's largest PV manufacturer, Sharp Solar
Sharp Solar
Sharp Solar produces thin film modules and mono and poly-crystalline silicon solar cells. Sharp's photovoltaic modules are used for many applications, from satellites to lighthouses, and industrial applications to residential use. Sharp began researching solar cells in 1959 with mass production...

, 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.

Government programmes

The Energy Saving Trust

Energy Saving Trust

Energy Saving Trust is a non-profit organisation jointly funded by the British Government and the private sector in order to help fight climate change by promoting the sustainable use of energy, energy conservation and to cut carbon dioxide emissions in the United Kingdom.-Background:The Energy...

that administers government grants for domestic photovoltaic systems, the Low Carbon Building Programme

Low Carbon Building Programme

The Low Carbon Building Programme was a Government programme in the United Kingdom administered by BERR which ran from 1 April 2006 until its closure to new applications on 24 May 2010...

, estimates that an installation for an average-sized house would cost between £5,000–£8,000 per kWp installed, with most domestic systems usually between 1.5 and 3 kWp, and yield annual savings between £150 and £200.

Green Energy for Schools

The Green Energy for Schools programme will be providing 100 schools across the UK with solar panels. The first school in Wales was the Tavernspite School, near Whitland

Whitland

Whitland is a small town in Carmarthenshire, south-west Wales, lying on the River Tâf. Whitland is home to the elusive "Whitland Trout" noted for its eggs and oily scales.- History :...

, which has received panels worth £20,000, sufficient to produce 3,000 kW·h of electricity each year.

Feed in tariff

Discussion on implementation of a feed-in tariff programme concluded on 26 September 2008, and the results will be published in the spring of 2009. One story used the language "They will be able to sell back surplus electricity at premium prices to the national grid.", which is not a feed-in tariff, it is simply a means of reconciling any surplus from a net metering programme. The key word is "surplus", not the word "sell". Net metering only requires the existing home electric meter, while a feed in tariff requires installation of a separate meter to measure generation. Australia has been criticized for implementing a similar programme, paying AU$0.60 (about £0.28) for each kWh over what is used each month, with Environment Victoria Campaigns Director Mark Wakeham calling it a "fake feed-in tariff".
The government in the UK agreed in April 2010 to pay for all grid-connected generated electricity at an initial rate of up to 41.3p (US$0.67) per kW·h, whether used locally or exported.
The rates proved more attractive than necessary, and in August 2011, were drastically reduced for installations over 50 kW,
a policy change criticized as marking "the end of the UK’s solar industry as we know it".

Statistics

Year	2008	2009	2010
Capacity (MW)	22	27	77
Generation (GW·h)	17	20	33
% of total electricity consumption	<0.001	<0.001	0.001

External links

UK's First Solar Plant Gets Go-ahead: A disused tin mine is set to host the UK's first Solar Panel park after winning approval from Cornwall Council.
Energy statistics from DECC

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