The UK government has proposed more ambitious targets for photovoltaics

The UK's Energy Security Strategy, published on April 7th, shows that the country has ambitious targets, with plans to increase photovoltaic capacity fourfold by 2035. The energy strategy is a response to the recent surge in global energy prices and further market volatility caused by the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The UK has 14GW of installed pv capacity; Achieving 70GW installations by 2035 will require a significant acceleration of the market's current growth rate. To achieve this, 4GW of new pv capacity will be needed each year between now and 2035. The UK has seen such a high increase only once, in 2015, when its photovoltaic market was at its peak.

Since then, the economics of photovoltaic technology have been poor, leading to a significant decline in new capacity, but the current surge in energy prices is likely to change that. Government plans to relax approval rules should also help.

After the new strategy was announced, Bloomberg New Energy Finance raised its forecast for cumulative PV capacity in the UK by 2030 to 52GW from 32GW previously.