Figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have shown that the number of homes across the UK installing solar panels has risen in the past few weeks.
Domestic scale installations for the year at the week ending March 3rd accounted for some 1,849 installations registered in the 0-50kWp category, accounting for a total capacity of 6.98MW.
The figures have been relatively steady since the start of February, but this final week accounted for a spike in total weekly installations, proving be almost 300 higher than the monthly low of 1,533.
However, the number of weekly installations are still not comparable to last year's recorded weekly total of 27,604 installations for March 4th.
It seems that statistics are dominated by installations in the 0-4kW band, with 94.6 per cent of the week's installations coming in this category.
Installations in the larger band of 10-50kW have traditionally struggled, but figures show that the total capacity of 1.6MW installed in that final week is a significant increase on the 1MW of capacity installed at the very start of February.
These figures could potentially be a boost to the industry, as a stable number of installations could provide the industry with long-term success. The increasing numbers could also suggest that some confidence is returning to the solar panel industry following times of uncertainty due to disputes with the feed in tariff (FiT).
Hopefully, this confidence will not be put at risk following the recent announcement that the DECC are bringing forward the date of automatic degression for the FiT. The new rate will now only run until July 1st as opposed to the previously suggested August 1st.
Ray Noble, PV specialist for the Solar Trade Association told Solar Power Portal that he welcomes the news of increased uptake, but warned that the industry still has some way to go before reaching the lofty heights of the previous year.