UK unsubsidised solar built-out accelerates as 'substantial' pipe enhancements are exposed

• The UK is witnessing a velocity of its subsidy-free solar construct out, equally as the nation's pipe of utility-scale projects observed a record month for enhancements.

Having actually experienced something of a pandemic-driven hiatus earlier this year, a variety of solar developers in the UK have now returned to action, either bringing projects into innovative stages of planning or breaking ground.

The Other Day (30 September) Hive Energy, among the designers behind the mammoth Cleve Hill Solar Farm project prepared for the UK's south-east coastline, confirmed building and construction job had begun on a 13MW subsidy-free solar park in Rugby, Warwickshire. That site is expected to finish by the end of the year and kinds part of a broader portfolio of subsidy-free solar projects Hive is establishing.

On the other hand, fellow developer Elgin Energy was especially active in September, verifying it was to establish a 38MW solar array on the site of a previous World War Two landing strip in Northamptonshire having already developed a joint-venture with prolific solar capitalist Foresight Group to create 200MW of subsidy-free PV.

Bluefield Solar Income Fund (BSIF) likewise confirmed late last month that it had amassed an exclusive pipeline of grid-parity solar projects with an incorporated capacity over of 350MWp that it was now aiming to breakthrough.

"The subsidy-free market in the UK is currently with us," John Rennocks, the investor's chairman, claimed.

The flurry of activity likewise coincides with a noteworthy uptick in new projects going into preparation. Writing for UK sis publication Solar Power Portal, Solar Media head of marketing research Finlay Colville exposed that more than 1GW of new large-scale solar sites had actually gone into the pipeline in September 2020, a new month-to-month document for ability to get in planning.

This new capability was spread throughout 28 websites and also consists of a possible 350MW solar farm proposed by power giant EDF.

The UK's complete solar pipe currently stands just reluctant of 12GW, around one-third of which has actually come to the fore in the last 6 months alone.

"This is enormous on all matters, as well as something no one saw coming 12 months ago," Colville composed.