FIT Installation Update - October to December 2014

December 2014 saw installations under the UK Feed in Tariff scheme reach 560,825 and a total installed capacity of 2,988.46 MW. The fourth quarter of 2014 had 32,700 installations and 232.14 MW of added generating capacity. That’s the largest quarterly installation growth since the third quarter of 2012 and the largest capacity growth since Q1 of 2012.

Note: This report analyses Feed in Tariff data on confirmed installations up to 31st December 2014. The data analysed is based on confirmation date figures from Ofgem’s Renewables & CHP Register.

Growth in Installation Numbers Continues

In terms of installation numbers, Q4 was a strong end to a strong year. Q4 2014 saw 32,700 installations, a further increase on strong second and third quarter numbers and more than 33% up on the same quarter in 2013.

Solar PV has been, and remains the largest technology in the FiT scheme by far and 32,460 new installations was the strongest quarter of a strong year for solar PV.

Quarterly Installations by Technology

	Solar PV	Wind	Hydro	Micro CHP	Anaerobic digestion	Total
Apr – Jun 2010	2,690	59	4	0	0	2,753
Jul – Sept 2010	7,702	594	103	5	0	8,404
Oct – Dec 2010	6,593	303	44	17	2	6,959
Jan – Mar 2011	11,204	289	41	78	1	11,613
Apr – Jun 2011	14,447	177	12	57	2	14,695
Jul – Sept 2011	35,020	306	16	97	4	35,443
Oct – Dec 2011	65,875	230	11	68	4	66,188
Jan – Mar 2012	99,863	318	22	36	2	100,241
Apr – Jun 2012	36,685	430	31	12	5	37,163
Jul – Sept 2012	43,306	414	34	30	9	43,793
Oct – Dec 2012	27,811	682	16	19	7	28,535
Jan – Mar 2013	20,542	505	19	19	11	21,096
Apr – June 2013	18,694	175	25	15	5	18,914
July – Sept 2013	25,743	141	23	9	10	25,926
Oct – Dec 2013	23,830	191	17	7	6	24,051
Jan – Mar 2014	22,405	185	26	4	15	22,635
Apr – Jun 2014	29,867	347	25	5	18	30,262
Jul – Sept 2014	29,208	199	31	2	14	29,454
Oct – Dec 2014	32,460	197	23	2	18	32,700

Total	553,945	5,742	523	482	133	560,825

Installed Capacity

Installed capacity under FiT continues to grow steadily. Q4 2014 saw 232.14 MW of installed capacity added across all technologies making it the strongest quarter since March 2012. As with installation numbers, every quarter in 2014 saw more installed capacity than the equivalent quarter in 2013.

Wind, which is dwarfed by solar PV in the number of systems installed, added 40.05 MW of capacity in the quarter. Impressively, just 197 wind installations created 23.63% of the added capacity achieved by solar PV. This is wind’s strongest quarter for installed capacity since the start of the scheme.

Quarterly Installed Capacity (MW) by Technology

	Solar PV	Wind	Hydro	Micro CHP	Anaerobic digestion	Total
Apr – Jun 2010	6.64	5.25	3.27	0	0	15.16
Jul – Sept 2010	19.44	5.08	3.69	0.01	0	28.21
Oct – Dec 2010	18.50	2.74	1.68	0.02	0.67	23.60
Jan – Mar 2011	32.80	5.36	1.08	0.08	1.10	40.42
Apr – Jun 2011	43.66	5.22	2.91	0.06	3.19	55.03
Jul – Sept 2011	142.38	3.89	2.57	0.10	3.85	152.79
Oct – Dec 2011	329.46	6.72	2.72	0.07	2.81	341.78
Jan – Mar 2012	405.17	20.02	3.79	0.04	2.07	431.08
Apr – Jun 2012	153.85	16.11	3.72	0.01	4.01	177.69
Jul – Sept 2012	185.88	17.00	5.14	0.04	9.12	216.99
Oct – Dec 2012	146.81	14.23	3.55	0.02	4.56	169.17
Jan – Mar 2013	98.32	31.06	0.96	0.02	6.80	137.16
Apr – June 2013	99.46	17.62	2.24	0.02	7.70	127.03
July – Sept 2013	138.62	23.14	1.75	0.01	6.36	169.87
Oct – Dec 2013	127.45	20.54	3.57	0.01	2.29	153.86
Jan – Mar 2014	107.33	20.70	3.54	0	13.47	145.05
Apr – Jun 2014	149.78	27.68	1.42	0.01	17.80	196.68
Jul – Sept 2014	150.31	18.07	8.31	0	8.05	184.75
Oct – Dec 2014	169.52	40.05	9.67	0	12.89	232.14

Total	2,525.21	300.45	65.57	0.49	106.74	2,998.46

Renewable Installations by Technology

Q4 2014 (Oct – Dec)

When looking at installation numbers, solar PV remains by far the dominant FiT technology, as it has been since the beginning of the scheme.

Technology	Number of Installs
Solar PV	32,460
Wind	197
Hydro	23
Micro CHP	2
Anaerobic digestion	18

All Time

Technology	Number of Installs
Solar PV	553,945
Wind	5,742
Hydro	523
Micro CHP	482
Anaerobic digestion	133

Renewable Generation Capacity by Technology

Q4 2014 (Oct – Dec)

Solar PV also accounts for by far the majority of added generation capacity under FIT but other technologies are much bigger contributors in capacity terms than installation numbers. Wind, anaerobic digestion and hydro all had big quarters and added significant capacity. All three technologies have comparatively tiny installation numbers but installations generally have larger generation capacity than with solar PV.