New research from solar energy developer GRYD Energy has revealed that council-owned homes are more likely to have solar PV installed on their rooftops than private homes.
Across the UK, around 5.5% of all residential properties owned or leased by councils now have rooftop solar PV installed, with 99,146 council homes including solar PV. This is compared to 5% of privately owned homes in the UK having rooftop solar installations.
The devolved nations of the UK have varied rates of solar success in this arena, with 8.4% of all council-owned homes in Wales including solar PV installations, 7.9% of council homes in Scotland having rooftop solar, compared to just 4.9% in England and 3.8% in Northern Ireland.
Several regions stand out has having particularly high rates of installations, such as North West Wales and North East Wales. Both of these regions boast a more than one in five rate of council homes featuring solar PV installations, at 23.6% and 21% respectively. The Scottish region of Aberdeen and North East also has a notably high solar installation rate, with 13.5% of council homes including rooftop solar.
Meanwhile, the nation’s capital is falling significantly behind, with only 1.8% of council homes including a solar installation. This is despite commendable effort from London Boroughs to roll out solar on their properties. In December last year, the London Borough of Hackney unveiled a new solar scheme which could save council tenants money on their energy bills, with 28 blocks of flats across three estates being fitted with a total of 4,000 solar panels from the start of this year. As part of the scheme, which Hackney Council claims is the first of its kind, council tenants will be able to buy power at around 15% less than the average market rate of electricity in the area thanks to a microgrid solution developed by Emergent Energy.
Mohamed Gaafar, CEO and co-founder of GRYD Energy, called the rollout of solar on council homes “remarkable “in the face of the immense financial pressure many local authorities are facing. However, he added: “Rates of rooftop solar deployment need to increase dramatically across the entire public and private housing landscape if we are to achieve the government’s clean energy targets by 2030.”
Gaafaar further urged the government to act on its promises to deliver “a rooftop revolution” for solar, adding: “The government must now act on that ambition and put serious investment and policy support behind helping local authorities and homeowners to adopt the technology, become energy independent and reduce the burden on the national grid.”
