PV in the UK: An Untapped Potential?

PV in the UK: An Untapped Potential?      

Although it is undeniable that solar technologies have higher potential in sunnier countries, U.K. deployment of PV is often dismissed on the basis of a widespread misconception that national solar irradiation level is not sufficient to achieve an acceptable economic profitability by investing in PV systems. However, according to Chiara Candelise, a researcher based at Imperial College London, the PV sector might still play a role in the U.K. and increase its share in the national energy mix.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (December 28, 2009) - The history of PV technology deployment in the U.K. begins with small off-grid applications. The expansion of the grid-connected market begun in 1993 with government-funded demonstration projects, although the real growth started in 2000 with the introduction of two field trial programs (the UK PV Domestic Field Trial and the UK Large Scale Filed Trial) and the implementation in 2002 of the Major Demonstration Programme (MJD) offering 50% capital grants for PV installations.

Currently, the majority of the PV grid-connected installations are building mounted or of relatively small size, with about 90% of the installations below 10 kWp. And this will probably remain the case in the future, as U.K. solar irradiation levels and land use opportunity costs discourage large ground-mounted applications and, crucially, major policy drivers for PV deployment in the U.K. favor small/medium-sized building-mounted applications (e.g., planning rules, building regulations, as well as feed-in tariffs due to be implemented in 2010).

Compared to other European countries, the U.K. PV market is still modest, mainly because of lack of funding in terms of both demand pull and supply push policies and to limited awareness of PV among the general public and investors. Moreover, although it is undeniable that solar technologies have higher potential in sunnier countries, U.K. deployment of PV is often dismissed on the basis of a widespread misconception that national solar irradiation level is not sufficient to achieve an acceptable economic profitability by investing in PV systems.

However, the PV sector might still play a role in the U.K. and increase its share in the national energy mix. Candelise, who has built up years of experience on techno-economic and market assessment of PV technologies, explains that the high PV market growth in Germany is the first evidence in support of this statement. The U.K.'s solar resource is very similar to the one available in Germany. Joint Research Centre's PVGIS maps show similar ranges for yearly annual irradiation levels for the two countries, whose theoretical PV potential (defined as the surface area of PV modules mounted at the optimum angle that would be needed to completely satisfy the country's electricity consumption, as a % of the country's area) is also estimated very close. Moreover, various existing estimates (from IEA, UKERC, UK PV Industry association) of the absolute solar resource potential are in the 100-140 TWh range, which would account for up to 35% of total U.K. electricity consumption.

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Source: EXPO Solar

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