Best start to a year for rooftop solar in more than a decade
Posted by: electime 28th April 2025
The UK is experiencing a solar boom, with the first quarter of 2025 proving the strongest start to a year for certified solar PV installations on homes and businesses in more than a decade.
According to MCS data – the UK’s quality mark for small-scale renewables – there were more than 57,000 certified installations of rooftop solar PV across the first three months of the year. This is the highest figure for the first quarter of a year since 2012, when the feed-in tariff regime was driving exceptional demand.
In March alone, there were more than 21,000 MCS certified solar PV installations, the highest figure for a single month since December 2015. This follows a recent record for total solar generation in the UK, which saw solar power generate 12.7 gigawatts of power on Sunday 6 April, equivalent to the generating capacity of four Hinkley C nuclear power stations, beating the previous high that was set only days before.
It also means there have now been more than 1.7 million total MCS certified installations of solar PV, the majority of them on homes.
Ian Rippin, CEO at MCS, said: “These latest figures show that consumers are continuing to turn to solar panels to provide them with home-grown energy. It’s really positive to see that installation figures continue to remain at a high level, demonstrating the maturity of the UK solar market.
“Our purpose at MCS is to give everyone confidence in home-grown energy, which means as consumer demand grows, installations need to continue being delivered to industry-recognised standards. That’s where MCS certified installers have a key role to play.”
The coming into effect of revised building regulations that require higher energy efficiency standards – so-called ‘Part L’ rules – have helped drive the rise in solar panels. In the last quarter of last year, more than four in ten new homes included solar panels. In March 2025, more than a third of all certified solar PV installations were on new builds.
Gemma Grimes, Director of Policy and Delivery at Solar Energy UK added: “The newbuild sector is becoming more and more important as a driver for growth in smaller-scale solar energy installations. The sector accounted for more than a third of the market last month. But retrofitting panels to existing homes and other buildings remains the largest segment, showing that the public is increasingly confident in the benefits that solar technology brings to bills and the environment alike.”
MCS holds the most comprehensive repository of data on the uptake of small-scale renewable technologies across the UK on The MCS Data Dashboard. For near-real-time updates on renewable installations, you can sign up for free to The MCS Data Dashboard here.
*Figures correct as of Tuesday 8 April
