The government has released new figures on solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the UK.
As of the end of June 2024, the UK has a total of 16.9GW of solar capacity across 1,595,916 installations.
This represents an increase of 8.5% or 1.3GW compared to June 2023.
In June 2024, there were 15,807 new installations, contributing 65MW of capacity.
This is a slight decrease from May 2024 but remains higher than average levels observed between 2016 and 2021.
The numbers reported are provisional and may be revised in the future.
Following a significant drop in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the number of installations rebounded by the latter half of 2020 and has since surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
The median monthly number of new installations was around 3,000 between 2016 and 2021, whereas it has increased to over 15,000 per month in the past year.
Most solar PV installations are domestic, yet they represent only 30% of the total solar capacity.
After an initial drop following the end of the Feed-in Tariff scheme, the share of domestic capacity has been gradually increasing.
In June 2024, 78% of new installations were residential, adding 48MW of capacity.
In 2023, the UK saw 196,782 new installations, the second highest annual total after 2011.
However, the total new capacity for the year was only the fifth highest recorded, as many of the new installations were smaller in size.
As of the end of March 2024, nearly 49% of the UK’s solar capacity, or 7,708MW, came from ground-mounted or standalone installations, including two solar farms accredited under the Contracts for Difference scheme.
