25GW! Another New Photovoltaic Market Was Discovered

A research team from international building analytics firm Barbour ABI has found that warehouses have huge untapped potential to create up to 25GWp of new rooftop solar capacity.

 

The firm also found that rooftop solar capacity in the UK surpassed 3GWp for the first time in 2022, as businesses look to find solutions that can reduce energy costs.

 

The announcement came after Conservative MPs for Lincolnshire and nearby counties said they were concerned about the number of large solar farms in the region given the existing grid-connected capacity.

 

In September 2022, according to the SPP report, the British Warehousing Association stated that the total area of unused warehouse roofs reached 18,500 acres, which means that the UK missed 15GW of solar energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barbour ABI's AMA research team estimates that the existing UK warehouse roof area is more than 165 million square meters, equivalent to 30,834 football fields, with a potential solar capacity of about 25GWp.

 

With the UK government aiming to achieve 70GW of solar power capacity by 2035, the government's solar task force has highlighted the potential of commercial rooftop solar. The National Climate Change Council also said the UK would need 40GWp of solar by 2030 to meet its 2050 net-zero emissions target.

 

Alex Blagden, Senior Research Manager at Barbour ABI, commented: "Rooftop solar PV on commercial and industrial buildings is likely to be the fastest way to increase renewable energy capacity in the UK, in large part because most schemes face little opposition from residents. the opposition, unlike ground-mounted photovoltaics and wind farms."

 

Blagden added: "The potential to scale up solar PV on commercial and industrial rooftops is considerable, combining trends driven by home-working and online shopping as a more holistic approach to renewable energy than sacrificing greenbelts and landscaped areas."

Amazon UK and Associated British Ports (ABP) are the largest users of rooftop solar PV in the UK, according to Barbour ABI. Amazon has 26 arrays with a total capacity of more than 20MWp, and ABP has 29MWp of capacity and plans to reach 40MWp by 2025.

 

Large-scale solar installations on factory roofs are also on the rise, with the 6.7MWp array at the Don & Low Nonwovens facility in Forfar the largest solar project installed to date.

 

The number of very large installations on the roofs of factory buildings is also increasing. There are seven sites with arrays exceeding 5MWp and occupying the equivalent of 25 acres. The 6.7MWp approval at the Don & Low Nonwovens production site in Forfar will be the largest rooftop project to date, bigger than the 6.5MWp project at Port Hull, owned by ABP Ports, which was commissioned in 2020.

 

Volatility in the energy market, the impact of ESG policies on corporate decision-making, and falling costs of solar PV are the main factors driving investment in rooftop commercial solar, according to Barbour ABI.