England defies “gloomy” reputation with solar boom
Things may seem gloomy across England (and I’m not just referring to the recent Ashes whitewash) but that hasn’t stopped them from embracing renewables. Casting off their reputation as a foggy loud covered in clouds – developers across the UK are being attracted by the falling cost of solar technology and attractive subsidies backing large-scale, ground mounted solar plants according to a report by Bloomberg.
While most of Europe is scaling back their support of solar in favour of promoting economic growth, England had remained largely unexplored by solar investors. With Spain and Italy cutting support for new solar plants, and Germany, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania all reducing their solar subsidies, England has emerged as a lucrative prospect for large-scale solar developers.
The U.K. government has pledged subsidies through to 2020 for solar plants 2 megawatts or larger with no maximum limit, with PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP expecting up to 2,000 megawatts (2 gigawatts) to be installed this year alone. These plants are expected to provide enough green energy to power 600,000 homes and utilise 16 square kilometers of solar panels – enough to cover the majority of Central London.
U.K. Energy Minister Greg Barker anticipates England’s solar boom will remain lucrative throughout the next decade. “The region could have as much as 20 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2020 from almost 3 gigawatts now,” he said. Rapid solar deployment would improve the countries solar rankings in the region, leapfrogging Italy’s 16.5 gigawatts and Spain’s 4.7 gigawatts.
Germany’s status as Europe’s solar front-runner looks set to stand for some time yet, already having racked up 35.4 gigawatts of installed solar power capacity (for perspective Australia recently achieved 3 gigawatts of rooftop solar, despite our ideal solar climate!).
“The U.K. is the most exciting growth market for solar in Europe,” Barker said. In recent times the region has attracted investors and developers including Portugal’s Martifer SGPS SA and the Dutch Infrastructure Fund BV.
