Solar PV installations increased by 115% in July

On 1 August changes to the feed-in tariff introduced a second round of cuts to solar subsidies and in the week ending 29 July installations hit 8,305 compared to 3,855 at the start of the month.

The figures published by DECC are provisional and therefore subject to change so until the official statistics are released the figures cannot be taken as gospel. However, the figures do give some indication into where the feed-in tariff scheme (FiTs) is likely to stand in November, when another reduction is set to come into force.

Although the figures have yet to be confirmed, it appears that the scheme will indeed implement further reductions, cutting the rate for installations up to 10kW by another 3.5%. This is due to domestic installations between 0-10kW exceeding 100MW, which is the Government’s first trigger point.

Clearly a surge in the amount of installations running up to 1 August was expected as solar installers see a flurry of activity from customers wanting to install solar panels before tariffs are reduced. With November set to bring yet more changes to the FiT scheme, there is a real fear within the solar PV industry that introducing tri-monthly degression cuts will only accelerate the boom and bust cycle.