More than 130,000 solar power systems of up to 50kW were mounted on UK homes and small businesses last year – the most in a single year since 2015 (when generous subsidies were still available) and almost as much as 2019-21 combined.
Meanwhile, heat pump installations also rocketed in 2022 to more than 30,000, making it the second most popular microgeneration clean technology after solar.
The figures come from the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), which certifies clean tech installations and contractors, covering solar, heat pumps, biomass, wind and battery storage.
MCS chief executive, Ian Rippin, said the soaring figures reflects the growing reliance on home-grown energy in the UK: “As electricity prices continue to rise, more people are turning to renewable solutions to generate their own power at home.”
MCS has seen a huge rise in contractors seeking to gain certification with them. The 780 new contractors becoming certified in 2022 was more than double the annual number just two years earlier. Battery storage is next in the running for huge growth – there are now 50 MCS-certified contractors for this technology, compared to just 2 in 2021.
New research by electric vehicle (EV) charging platform, Zap-Map, and renewable energy supplier, Good Energy, suggests that switching to electric from petrol or diesel vehicles is a crucial entry point for adopting other clean energy technologies.
According to Zap-Map, 29 per cent of EV drivers have solar panels installed at home. This means EV owners are 7 times more likely to have installed solar than the average person.
Furthermore, more than 1 in 10 EV drivers now have a home battery storage system installed. They are also 20 per cent more likely than average to have a smart meter and 7 times more likely to have a heat pump.
“A gateway to clean energy is a great way of thinking about EVs,” explained Melanie Shufflebotham, Zap-Map’s COO and co-founder. “As soon as you change the energy you use to fuel your vehicle you start thinking about the energy you use elsewhere in your life. Then you realise you can reduce your running costs with solar panels too.”
Nigel Pocklington, CEO of Good Energy and chair of Zap-Map, added: “Once you’ve got one foot into the clean energy life you only want to go further. Once you get a heat pump, you want to run it on renewable energy. If you get solar panels, you can charge your electric car for free.”