Lightsource Renewable Energy has connected more than 100MW of capacity in the past month, as a flurry of new projects came online ahead of cuts to key subsidy schemes.
The company announced late last week that it had connected 23 new sites in December, comprising 14 sites connected under the Feed-In tariff (FiT) incentive scheme and nine sites under the Renewable Obligations Certificate (ROC) subsidy scheme.
The projects are part of a wave of new solar developments across the country as firms rush to bring solar farms and rooftop arrays online ahead of steep cuts to the FiT from next month and an end to large solar farms accessing the RO from April.
Lightsource said it had a "busy New Year ahead" with plans to connect a further 14 ground-mount sites totalling 92MW by March 31st, taking its total installed capacity in the UK to 1.3GW.
"Despite the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the industry in recent months, we've seen a great many successes in 2015 and this latest round of connections is a great way for us to end the year," said Nick Boyle, CEO of Lightsource, in a statement. "We are certainly no stranger to tough deadlines and difficult weather conditions, but it's a huge testament to the capabilities of our in-house teams that we are able to complete such a mammoth task in a very short period of time."
The solar sector is expected to face a tough 2016 with the government's own impact assessment for its recent cuts to FiT rates predicting up to 18,700 jobs could go across the industry. There are also concerns across the industry that the government is still yet to clarify how some aspects of the new FiT regime will work, just weeks before it is due to come into effect.
However, some within the industry have argued that certain specific sites could still be suitable for solar installations, despite the subsidy cuts, and Lightsource said it expects to bring online its first "subsidy-free" sites this year.
The company said that private-wire Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) could see large scale solar sites "hard-wired" to large electricity users such as factories, allowing them access clean power at well below the cost of importing power from the grid.
"Whilst we are still taking stock of the recent government announcements concerning solar subsidies, we have big plans for 2016 and expect it to be another busy year," said Boyle. "The UK solar industry has made great strides towards a subsidy-free environment. During the FiT and ROC regimes, we have worked hard to drive down costs and built a solid base of knowledge and expertise, which has prepared us for developing our first large-scale sites free of government support."
However, he added that it was a "great shame" that the cuts to the FiT incentives meant many other domestic and commercial and industrial rooftop sites would no longer be able to take advantage of solar technology.
Experts across the industry have warned the depth of the subsidy cuts mean that sites where much of the power is exported to the grid will no longer be economically viable, adding that the subsequent contraction of the solar industry will delay the point at which subsidy-free solar technologies are more widely available.
The government has consistently argued the cuts, which are not quite as deep as first proposed, are needed to reduce upward pressure on domestic energy bills and keep track with falling solar technology costs.
In related news, Alpha Real Renewables announced last week that it has expanded its renewable energy operating portfolio to 50MW following the recent acquisition of two solar farms in the West Midlands and three wind farms in Scotland, with a combined power output of 14.5MW.
The company said all the installations had qualified for the FiT scheme. "We are delighted with the performance and growth of the portfolio over the past year," said Will Morgan, portfolio manager for renewables at the company, in a statement. "The focus has been on long term, new build assets with strong underlying cashflows across diversified technologies and locations. We continue to look to add to the portfolio in this way and look forward to continued growth in 2016".
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