The UK renewables industry is now supporting 100,000 jobs and is set to be to be the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) market in Europe in 2014.
According to a recent report published by the Renewable Energy Association (REA); the UK’s renewable energy industry has attracted almost £30 billion of private sector investment since 2010; which enabled the industry to sustain over 100,000 jobs in 2013. Approximately 15,000 renewables jobs in the UK last year were in the solar sector.
While installation small scale solar power systems in the UK has dropped off to a degree, commercial and large scale installations are powering ahead; which will boost solar employment again.
NPD SolarBuzz states more than 325 solar farms in the megawatt (MW) class would have been completed within the UK at the end of April, with more than 60 different installations having a capacity exceeding 10 MW.
NPD SolarBuzz says another 444 large-scale ground-mounted solar PV facilities are currently at various stages of planning in the UK and 124 have planning applications approval.
It’s a curious situation – RenewEconomy’s Giles Parkinson points out sun-drenched Australia has just one megawatt-scale ground mounted solar farm (Greenough River Solar Farm) and only a handful in development.
One of the issues holding back large scale solar in this country is uncertainty over the future of the Renewable Energy Target, which is currently under review.
Australian Solar Council CEO John Grimes states the RET Review process is heading to a biased and predetermined outcome; which threatens billions of dollars investment and thousands of current and future jobs in the solar sector.
It’s not just large scale solar in the shadow of the grim reaper; residential solar also faces uncertainty. In a worst case scenario, if all subsidisation was removed it would add thousands of dollars onto the cost of an average solar panel system.
