Following the recent news that the UK has announced it will promote renewable energy as part of its new Small Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme, Mohit Prasad, Project Manager at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on what this means for solar PV installations in the UK:

“With the introduction of the new scheme, the UK will again witness a surge in its solar PV installations. The households, along with commercial businesses which have installed solar panels, will be treated like traditional generators and will be paid for pumping in more renewable energy into the grid replacing the pollution causing coal-fired generators.

“According to GlobalData, the average project cost of solar PV installations declined sharply between 2010 and 2018 from US$6,678/kW to US$1,560/kW owing to advancements in technology and reductions in the cost of producing components and the scale of production. With the average cost of solar PV installations expected to decline further, the power generated through such systems will be cheaper which ultimately will impact the electricity bills of households and commercial installations; some could even witness negative power bills. With 800,000 homes already with solar panels, this new scheme will further foster the growth of small scale installations in the UK.”