When the government decided to remove support for small-scale solar power installation with its revised feed-in tariffs (FiT), many in the industry warned that this would affect take-up of the technology among homeowners.
Solar Power Portal has recently shared the latest figures from Ofgem, showing how much solar capacity had been installed in the final quarter of 2017 - and compared this to government projections.
The website noted that in the residential 0-10kW band, 22.844MW of capacity was installed between October and December last year. Although deployment in this and other categories of solar PV installations have been steadily increasing, they are well below government estimates.
In the final quarter of last year, total deployment of solar panels under FiT stood at 370.618MW. When the FiT scheme was redesigned in 2015, the government predicted that total deployment would hit 685.5MW by the end of 2017.
The government has yet to publish its proposals for the period once FiT ends, with the publication noting that it should also have shared a review of the FiT scheme by the end of 2017 and has failed to do so.
Anyone who is considering installing solar PV at their homes, or who already has such panels fitted, may also want to explore the option for solar battery storage in the UK.
At the end of December, Which? highlighted the growing trend of linking solar panels on residential homes to batteries, allowing households to store their energy for use at a later date.
The consumer organisation explained that installing a battery along with your solar panels can “help you maximise the amount of renewable energy you use”. This is not only great news for the environment, but can reduce your energy bills because you’re taking less power from the grid.