New Research Ranks UK Counties Solar Energy Performance
Experts at Green Business Watch has launched the UK's first solar panel rankings aimed at highlighting the solar energy opportunities to property owners on a county-by-county basis for the first time. The findings, which look at a variety of factors show some clear differences in installations of solar PV in different counties as well as variations in potential domestic savings and earnings from £413 to as much as £655[1] per year. With high targets to meet in solar installations and many misconceptions around the size of the opportunity, the UK Solar Power County Rankings provide an unprecedented amount of information about UK Solar energy in one place, allowing property owners see the real benefits of solar in their area.
Alastair Kay, at Green Business Watch said: "Solar energy presents an opportunity for property owners across the UK but there is a lot of uncertainty over what the benefits are in real terms and what the figures really mean for householders.
"If we as an industry are to keep solar growing, it's essential that we help property owners to see what can be achieved using solar. We've put together the UK Solar Power County Rankings to give a complete picture comparing solar deployment and potential on a county by county basis."
"If we as an industry are to meet the Government's stretching targets on solar it's essential that we help property owners to see what can be achieved using solar. We've put together the UK Solar Panel Rankings to bring together the findings in an accessible and easy to understand format for the first time."
The rankings show that the South West of England currently accounts for over 25% of all installed solar capacity with Scottish counties only representing 2.9%. However, conversely, many Scottish counties perform strongly in terms of domestic solar penetration based on installations per 10,000 households.
Key findings of the research include:
Wiltshire takes the top spot with more solar installed than any other county (614MW). This is mainly due to large volumes of commercial solar.
Counties in the South West of England are amongst the top 10 performers across domestic and commercial solar.
Despite making up much of the bottom 10 in terms of total installed solar capacity, Scottish counties perform well in terms of domestic penetration with the Scottish Borders at 5th place in these rankings, Moray in 19th and the Highlands in 22nd.
Currently no UK county has seen solar installations on more than 7% of its housing stock, leaving a opportunity to grow solar PV capacity in the UK.
Greater London ranks 77th of 78 counties across England, Scotland and Wales for domestic solar penetration based on installations per 10,000 households.
The UK's solar PV capacity in 2018[2], sits at an impressive 12.79GW. The country sits in seventh place in the world solar panel rankings, with Italy and Germany the only European countries ahead in the list. This is despite the UK sitting at 21st in the rankings for population size.
Green Business Watch, which specialises bringing together qualified and trusted renewable energy installers across the UK and Ireland, collated the research to highlight the potential opportunities to increase solar capacity across the UK.
With potential savings and income from solar PV installations varying across the country, residents and businesses can for the first time use the map to identify the potential savings and income they could achieve by investing in solar PV.
