UK and Germany, the two leaders in European solar market, have respectively unveiled solar installation figures for period of December 1, 2014 to November 30, 2015. During this period, Germany has added 1.28GW of new solar systems while UK installed 3.4GW of solar.
Germany: Current FiT scheme to remain unchanged
Germany was once the leader of European solar market. However, the annual installation has been decreasing since 2014 due to FiT cuts and some related reasons. Germany’s Federal Network Agency announced that only 1.28GW of new solar systems were registered during the period. 44% of the total installations were systems larger than 1MW, 37% of them were commercial systems between 10~1000kW, and 19% are small-scale systems under 10kW.
In November 2015, only 69.75MW of solar were registered, lower than 87.72MW registration in October 2015. Accordingly, the Germany government decided to remain the current FiT rates unchanged from January to March 2016. The FiT subsidies will range from €0.0853 to €0.1231/kWh depending on the plant size.
UK: Q1 installations to boom
The U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) pointed out that the cumulative installation in the country by November 2015 had reached 8.4GW, tens of times more than 223MW capacities in 2011, reported PV Magazine. The solar installations during December 2014 and November 2015 were 3.4GW, representing a 67% growth compared with the same period between 2013 and 2014. Furthermore, the solar installation is expected to boom in the first quarter of 2016 due to the to-be-cut FiT rates.
47% of solar capacities among the total installations accredited the Renewable Obligation, which will end on April 1 this year.
As DECC projects an installation boom in the first quarter of 2016, the department believes that the total installations will surpass 2GW. Yet the annual installation would decrease compared to 2015.
However, UK would move into the zero-subsidy generation as solar power has become more acceptable to the citizens. The lowering costs and firm investment possibilities also support solar plants to go “FiT-free.”