The United Kingdom reached a new milestone of solar generation in 2014 by adding almost 5GW of new installations. The U.K.’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) reported that the nation’s rapid surge from 2.8GW at the end of 2013.
Several institutes, including EnergyTrend, expect that U.K. will take over Germany’s leading position in Europe’s renewable market starting from 2015. With supports from the government, solar installations have been growing recently. According to the U.K-based Solar Trade Association’s (STA) statistics, the nation now has more than 650,000 solar installations.
STA explains the surge, believing that it comes after the falling costs of solar power, especially which is in the large-scale PV segment. Paul Barwell, CEO of the STA, commented, "Solar could, by 2020, be cost-competitive with gas and no longer need any kind of government support at all on homes and commercial roofs. But, we will only reach that point if the next government provides a stable policy framework and a level playing field with other technologies."