uk

Construction of Europe’s largest floating solar PV array is underway on London’s Queen Elizabeth II reservoir, where the installation will help Thames Water meet its target of self-generating a third of its own power by 2020.

The UK installed 3.5GW of Europe’s 8GW of PV capacity in 2015, according to SolarPower Europe.

The UK saw almost 4GW of solar installed in 2015 and a final-quarter rush ahead of planned cuts to key support regimes in early 2016.

In the last two days the United States and United Kingdom have taken two very different decisions on the future of solar in their countries. As the world seeks to capitalise on the momentum generated by last week’s Paris climate agreement, they are decisions that could have far-reaching consequences.

The UK government has announced 64% cuts to the feed-in tariff, a modest improvement on the 87% cuts proposed in the summer.

Former UK energy minister Lord Barker has said solar’s future lies in a combination of private wire PPAs and a government-backed net metering scheme.

Solar Intelligence's Finlay Colville looks into SolarWorld and REC Solar's forecasts for the UK market next year, and how they tally against his own.