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Solar Power

Question for Department for Energy and Climate Change

UIN 4394, tabled on 25 June 2015

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the average annual power output is for solar panels installed in the UK.

This answer is the replacement for a previous holding answer.

Answered on

2 July 2015

The power output of solar panels will vary according to the amount of capacity deployed and the load factor at which these operate. At the end of May 2015, 7.3 GW of solar capacity was installed in the UK. From data on solar panels installed under Feed in Tariffs (covering Great Britain only), the average load factor of solar panels in 2013/14 was 10.4 per cent. Over 2011/12 to 2013/14, the average load factor was 10.2 per cent.

Source:

Solar photovoltaics deployment, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solar-photovoltaics-deployment

Feed in tariff load factor analysis, Energy Trends December 2014”, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/energy-trends-december-2014-special-feature-article-feed-in-tariff-load-factor-analysis

To note that the capacity and load factor figures given above should not be multiplied to give an annual average power output, since not all would have been installed at the beginning of the year.

To note that the capacity and load factor figures given above should not be multiplied to give an annual average power output, since not all would have been installed at the beginning of the year.

Answered by

Department for Energy and Climate Change
Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.