Ofgem’s latest quarterly report for the second quarter of FIT Year 16 (1 July to 30 September 2025) reveals continued activity under the Feed-In Tariffs (FIT) scheme, despite its closure to new applicants in 2019.
During this period, six new installations were registered, contributing 0.059 MW to the total installed capacity (TIC). This brings the cumulative total under the scheme to 869,620 installations and 6,492 MW of TIC.
Of the installations accredited this quarter, five were solar photovoltaic (PV) and one was hydroelectric. In terms of capacity, this left solar accounting for 73.2% of the quarter’s new TIC, while hydro contributed 26.8%.
This quarter’s figures represent a slight decrease compared to the previous quarter, which saw eight new registrations and 0.068 MW TIC accredited.
The FIT scheme, introduced in 2010, offers financial incentives to individuals, companies and organizations that generate electricity from renewable sources.
This is available for installations of solar panels, wind turbines, hydroelectric systems, anaerobic digestion and micro-combined heat and power (Micro-CHP).
Although the scheme closed to new applicants on March 31, 2019, installations registered before the deadline will continue to receive payments for the duration of the agreed terms, which range from 10 to 25 years depending on the technology.
At the end of Program Year 15 (April 2024 to March 2025), for which Ofgem also published figures, the FIT program had achieved 869,659 active accreditations, of which 98.93% were solar PV installations. Solar energy accounted for 79.31% (5.15 GW) of the total installed capacity. Most of these installations, 99.56%, were what Ofgem considers microgenerators (capacity less than 50 kW), mainly domestic roof systems.
In scheme year 15, an estimated 3% of households in Britain had solar PV installations supported by the FIT scheme.
During that period, 8.0 TWh of sustainable electricity was generated under the scheme. Of this, 1.5 TWh (18.8%) was exported to the grid, with associated export payments totaling £94 million. FIT generators received a total of £1.73 billion in payments for generation and exports.
History of the FIT scheme
When it was first introduced, the FIT program took off so much that in 2015 the government unveiled sweeping – and at the time exceptionally unpopular – changes, introducing a cap to limit the amount of solar that could be installed, as well as a proposed cut from 12.47 pence/kWh to 1.63 pence/kWh, which was later increased to 4.39 pence/kWh following industry protests.
When it was demolished in 2019, the then Labor Party shadow energy minister, Rebecca Long Bailey, described it as “pushing an already struggling solar industry back from the brink of collapse”.
Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) payments were introduced in January 2020 to replace the FIT scheme, with the key difference being that the the payment rate would be set by the energy suppliersresulting in a large price spread. As a result, Octopus Energy, for example, has strived to offer competitive export rates, claim customers who export electricity pay more than any other UK energy supplierR.
