Move over Germany and Spain – according to a recent report from iSuppli Corp, the United Kingdom is the fastest-growing country for solar panel installations this year.
Installations of solar panel based solar power systems in the United Kingdom will reach 96 Megawatts (MW) in 2010, up an incredible 1,500 percent from 6 MW in 2009; dramatically outpacing the growth of the next fastest-growing nation, Spain, by more than double.
“Things definitely are looking brighter for the solar market in the United Kingdom in 2010, as the country has adopted attractive Feed-in-Tariffs (FIT) to promote PV adoption,” said Dr. Henning Wicht, senior director and principal analyst for iSuppli.
The average residential price for electricity in the United Kingdom is currently around AUD 0.21 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) at current exchange rates. A residential solar power system of up to 4 Kilowatts in size can earn between AUD 63c and 68c per kilowatt hour under the UK’s gross feed in tariff scheme. In Australia, only the A.C.T and New South Wales offer gross feed in tariffs. Other Australian states offer net feed in tariffs where premium payments are only applied to electricity surplus to home use exported to the mains grid.
iSuppli quotes data from United Kingdom’s Department of Energy and Climate Change that states an average household with a 2.5kW system could save up to AUD $244 on their electricity bills annually – a healthy return for a system in a country not particularly known for sunshine.
iSuppli forecasts UK PV installations will continue to rise in the 50 percent range for each year through 2014; reaching 501MW by that year.
