Botley West solar farm

Solar power has a growing role in electricity production in the United Kingdom, contributing around 6.4% of the UK's annual power generation in 2025. As of 2025, on sunny days, it provides over 30% of the UK's power consumption at times. Solar generation reached an all-time high of 15,420 MW at 13:00 on 23 April 2026. There were few installations until 2010, when the UK government mandated subsidies in the form of a feed-in tariff (FIT), paid for by all electricity consumers. In the following years the cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels fell, and the FIT rates for new installations were reduced in stages until the scheme closed to new applications in 2019. The total installed capacity at the end of November 2025 was 21.5 GW, an increase of over 13% on the previous year. PV panels have a capacity factor of around 10% in the UK climate. Home rooftop solar panels installed in 2022 were estimated to pay back their cost in ten to twenty years.

Power station data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).