PV is now producing more electricity than coal in the U.K. But don’t expect a storage boom to follow.
According to GTM Research’s Global Solar Demand Monitor, the U.K. is the fifth largest market for solar demand globally — although installations are set to drop 65 percent next year due to policy uncertainty.
In addition, concerns over the eligibility for subsidies are forcing asset owners to delay adding storage to PV projects, said Jill Cainey, director of the Electricity Storage Network.
The U.K. PV industry is largely supported through a Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROC) scheme that was designed before the advent of solar-plus-storage plant designs.
PV asset owners wishing to add storage to their plants would have to reapply for ROC accreditation with their distribution network operator. Payments under the ROC scheme would then be suspended pending the outcome of the accreditation process.
Even though any interim payments would still be awarded once the accreditation was granted, the temporary halt in cash flow “is something an investor would not be excited about,” Cainey said.
This month, she attended a U.K. renewable energy trade show, Clean Energy Live, and “there were no solar farms deploying storage.”
At the same time, the U.K. market for residential solar-plus-storage looks unlikely to take off in the near future because of unfavorable economics.
Recent research by Delta Energy & Environment suggests the payback time for U.K. residential PV-plus-storage could be 16.9 years for a new system and 24.5 years for a retrofit, not taking subsidies into account.
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