Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent assessment her Department has made of the ability of the UK solar industry to meet service demand; and if she will make a statement.

As set out in the November 2013 Renewable Energy Roadmap Update, analysis indicated a potential deployment range of 7-20 GW (equivalent to 6-18 TWh) of solar PV at all scales, with 20GW being our estimate of the technical maximum level of solar PV deployment by 2020 on the basis of grid and other constraints. Solar PV in the UK was 8.007GW as of August 2015¹.

In the absence of cost effective storage, solar PV can make a contribution to meeting electricity demand but this will be limited by the nature of its diurnal cycle.

REF:

1. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solar-pv-deployment-august-2015