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News Release from: Solarcentury | Subject: UK solar PV market
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 05 September 2005
UK fall behind German and Japanese solar
markets
Fledgling UK solar PV market has fallen further behind major competitors.
The fledgling UK solar PV market has fallen further behind our major competitors According to figures from the IEA, the UK installed 2.2MWp of grid-connect solar photovoltaics (PV) in 2004, equivalent to just 1,100 solar roofs
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 30 Jul 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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The same survey showed the Netherlands (3MWp), France (4.2MWp), Italy (4.4MWp) and Spain (8.5MWp) all installing more grid-connect solar PV than the UK in 2004.
But the real front-runners in the rapidly growing global market for solar PV remain Japan and Germany.
In 2004 alone, the Germans installed 360MWp equivalent to 180,000 solar roofs.
Total cumulative installations in Japan have now passed the 1GWp mark or approximately 500,000 roofs.
Jeremy Leggett, Chief Executive of solarcentury, the UK's leading solar energy company and Board member of the RPA said "News that in 2004, the UK solar PV market was a little over half a percent of the German total, makes a mockery of the Government's successive White Paper commitments to this sector.
It was only two years ago that the Energy White Paper confirmed the Government's pledge to deliver a ten-year solar PV programme to "establish the UK as a credible player in the PV market, alongside Germany and Japan." Dr Leggett added, "But it's not too late to make good those promises.
Solar PV is a tried and tested unobtrusive technology, ideal for our largely urban environment.
It can make a very significant contribution to the Government's 2020 energy efficiency target and renewables aspiration, and it can do so cost-effectively.
Even at today's UK prices in a tiny market with zero economies of scale, the solar PV needed to reduce carbon emissions by 10% on an average home built to latest building regulations cost only GBP3,000.
This is just 1.3% of the cost of the average home in England or less than 1% in London.
The Japanese market experience suggests that this GBP3,000 figure can more than halve as economies of scale are achieved.".
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