The UK Summer has finally arrived and the sunny weather we have enjoyed over the last few weeks, together with longer days, has contributed to the UK’s solar power output nearly doubling compared to the same period last year.
To quantify, the Solar Trade Association (STA) confirm that in July 2013 around 2.7GWh of electricity had been generated in total from homes, buildings and solar farms in the UK. However, at the end of June 2014, this figure is around 4.7GWh; almost double the previous year’s figure.
It was further reported by the STA that on the longest day of the year (June 21st), around 8% of the total UK’s daytime electricity was generated by solar PV installations.

In the UK alone, there are around 530,000 solar installations with around 510,000 domestic households being responsible for these. Last year, over 80,000 new domestic installations were initiated, with commercial installations also reaching new heights.
With new installations expected to continue to soar over the next 12 months, the STA predict that the figure of 8% for solar generation could easily double again by the same time next year.  They further believe that solar generation could be responsible for around 30-40% of the UK’s total electricity during the Summer months in the not too distant future.
It’s not just the UK that is enjoying record figures – elsewhere in Europe, Germany report that over 50% of electricity was generated by solar PV on a particular day in June. France, Italy & Denmark also reported record figures.