In 2025, solar power supplied a record 6.3% of Britain’s energy, following a 30% increase in generation.
As confirmed by the industry’s trade body, Solar Energy UK, around 18,314 GWh of electricity was generated from solar energy this year, an increase on the 2024 total of 14,067 GWh.
This growth was partly driven by record amounts of sunshine in Britain in 2025, which was confirmed this week by the Met Office as the number of hours of sunshine (1,622) since the record began in 1910. Southern and eastern England in particular, where there is a concentration of solar PV development, were ‘particularly sunny’.
According to the estimate of Solar Media Market Research analyst Josh Cornes, 2025 also saw an 18% increase in solar power generation capacity as installed solar power reached approximately 23.8 GW.
About 650 MW of solar power in 2025 was from small-scale installations, largely on residential rooftops, while 450 MW of commercial rooftops were added this year and 2.5 GW from ground-mounted solar power plants.
Nearly 250,000 residential rooftop solar installations have been registered by the standards body MCS, and Solar Energy UK noted that data is still being collected. The activities of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners were also highlighted Cleve Hill, Britain’s largest solar power stationcame online this year.
Chief executive of Solar Energy UK Chris Hewett pointed out that solar, “long a minor player” in the energy mix, now supplies six times more energy to the market than hydropower, accounting for the equivalent of a quarter of the power generated by natural gas.
“With capacity set to rise to almost 60 GW over the next decade, we are guaranteed to see records plummet every year,” he added.
About It is expected that 30 GW of grid-scale solar will be connected to the UK electricity grid by 2030.
