The latest data from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnz) have shown that both domestic and non-household solar installations in the UK continue to rise.
From the end of April 2025, the UK has a total of 18.1 GW solar capacity over 1,780,000 installations; This marks an increase of 5.9% (1 GW) since April 2025. In April of this year, 20,405 new solar installations with a combined capacity of 82 MW were completed, a figure of which is, on the other hand, is higher than the average figures that are seen between 2016 and 2021.
Although the vast majority of solar -pv installations per volume is domestic, which form 1,537,058 (86%) of the total solar installations of the country, these installations form only about 31% of the total MW capacity of the British solar sun. In April 2025, 68% of the new solar PV was installed on a residential building, which adds 59 MW capacity.
Last year, 191,000 solar installations saw added in the UK, a decrease of 3% compared to the 2023 figure of 197,000. However, this number is much greater than the average number of annual installations between 2016 and 2022, which is 63,000 annually.
From the end of March 2025 (Q1 2025), at least 43% of the solar capacity (7.71 GW) came from on the ground mounted or independent solar installations, including the two operational-PV-energy plants among the contracts (CFD) scheme, the charity and triangular scheme. Moreover, Desnz estimates that about half of the solar capacity that is currently categorized as “non-accredited” is made of solar projects mounted on the ground, which entails solar energy mounted on the ground to take about 59% of the total capacity of the UK.
Moreover, according to Solar Media Market Research, the UK is expected to add new solar capacity in 2025 between 3 GW and 3.5 GW. Approximately 20% of the 2.3 GW of the solar energy used in 2024, originating from residential installations on the roof, with commercial installations on the roof that still contributes to a 20%.
Recent analysis, however, indicates that there are a number of factors that can hinder the expansion of solar capacity in the UK this year; The most striking of these is the increasing time needed for approving planning applications.
Solar Media Market Research analyst Josh Cornes notes that between 2010 and 2015 the average time for a project to get approval, was around 29 weeks; In the past five years, the average waiting time for approval has increased to 45 weeks, with the current longest time for a project to go through the approval process of the local planning authority that is 177 weeks.
