The biggest UK solar news from 2025
In 2025, the UK’s solar and energy storage industries thrived under supportive legislation, with record investment.
It’s been a big year for UK solar, so we’re taking a look at Solar Power Portal’s most-read stories of 2025. See the UK’s biggest solar news and commentary below.
Great Britain achieves a new maximum solar generation record
On 1 April, between 12:30 and 13:00, the United Kingdom secured a new maximum solar generation record of 12.2 GW.
For comparison, on 1 April 2024, the UK recorded a peak generation capacity of 5.71GW, whilst the peak for all of 2024 reached 11.5GW on 2 June.
The UK then set a new solar generation record just days later, 13.8GW on 6 April, and 2025’s peak came at 12.30pm on 8 July, reaching just over 14GW, or 43% of demand. 2025 as a whole saw record solar PV generation, in part driven by record levels of irradiance.
It’s also worth noting that UK rooftop solar PV installations hit 206,682 in November 2025, a record for the sector that has pushed the total number of certified small-scale solar installations in the UK to 1.85 million.
In Ireland, figures from grid operator EirGrid showed that by September 2025, solar PV had generated more electricity than it did in all of 2024.
Fire at Statera’s Essex BESS project brought under control, handed back to site management
Related:Aura Power secures financing for 49.9MW East Devon solar plant
In February, we broke news that a fire which broke out at an under-construction battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Essex was brought under control within 24 hours.
Responding to a request for comment, BESS owner-operator Statera Energy confirmed to Energy-Storage.news that the project in question belongs to the firm. Read more about the fire at Statera’s Essex BESS project.
The 300MW/600MWh BESS in Tilbury, called Thurrock, was at the time one of the largest under-construction projects in the UK, alongside a 270MW ‘flexible generation plant’, i.e. a gas-fired power plant.
Since then, and despite that setback, the Thurrock BESS came online in August this year. This contributed to the National Energy System Operator (NESO) projecting that this winter period would have the lowest blackout risk since 2019/2020.
UK solar deployment poised to increase 50% YoY, following rapid growth in the second half of 2024
An exciting projection by Solar Media Market Research analyst Josh Cornes from January this year forecasted UK solar additions between 3-3.5GWp-dc of capacity in 2025, just shy of the huge numbers seen in 2015 and huge growth on 2024.
Read Josh’s story: UK solar deployment poised to increase 50% YoY, following rapid growth in the second half of 2024.
Related:METLEN to deliver EPC work at EDF’s 400MW Longfield solar PV farm
More recently, Cornes put 2025’s installed solar PV capacity at about 23.8GW, an increase of about 3.6GW—650MW of small-scale installations, largely on residential rooftops, 450MW commercial rooftop added, and 2.5GW from ground-mounted solar power plants commissioned this year.
Come back in early 2026 to read his forecast for next year.
The top 10 biggest solar farms in the UK
Not exactly breaking news, but evidently a useful resource, our next most-read article this year was a roundup of the biggest operational solar power plants in the UK.
We last updated the article in September, since which time the Derril Water solar plant, formerly owned by now-bust Ripple Energy, came online; with a 42MW capacity, it wouldn’t quite have made our list, but next year, after approvals for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) have flown through planning in 2025.
Here’s our list of the 10 biggest solar farms in the UK.
Harmony Energy Income Trust agrees to £190.8 million takeover offer
In March, Harmony Energy Income Trust (HEIT) announced it had reached an agreement with Foresight Group LLP for the latter to potentially acquire the entire share capital of HEIT for 84.0p per share, making up a total of £190.8 million, after the trust announced it would sell its portfolio in December 2024.
Related:2025 sees record UK solar generation as capacity and sunshine hours increase
After news of the £190.8 million takeover agreement broke, HEIT received a £200 million cash offer from renewables firm Drax, higher than Foresight’s offer. However, Drax withdrew its offer in May after Foresight increased its bid, taking on HEIT’s portfolio of eight grid-connected 2-hour duration BESS with a total capacity of around 400MW/800MWh in July.
The sale of HEIT’s UK portfolio raised questions about the viability of publicly listed funds for BESS assets. At the time, an anonymous BESS developer source told our sister site Energy-Storage.news that HEIT’s troubles, leading to its sale, raised the question of whether these funds are the best way to raise money in the market for BESS projects.
Recently, former non-executive chair of HEIT Norman Crighton was appointed non-executive director of Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (GSF).
Great British Energy’s ‘first major project’ sees £200 million government investment into rooftop solar
In March, the UK government’s Great British Energy Company announced that its first move would be a £200 million investment in rooftop solar PV for public buildings – schools and NHS sites.
Until then, its activity, including partnerships with the Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland and the appointment of Dan McGrail, who led the trade body representing businesses developing wind, wave, tidal, storage and green hydrogen projects in the UK, had suggested a focus on offshore generation technologies.
Since announcing the funding, the scheme has been expanded several times, offering a total of £255 million to cover the installation of rooftop solar at 250 schools and 270 NHS sites and technologies such as solar panels and micro-wind turbines deployed across a range of military sites.
GB Energy recently published its five-year plan, aiming to establish, through ownership and investment, a portfolio of “at least” 15GW clean energy generation and storage capacity and mobilise £15 billion of private finance through its own spending.
The strategic plan, a response to the government’s Statement of Strategic Priorities, published in September, set out the key areas of focus for the company and how it will deliver on its goals.
Read the original coverage of Great British Energy’s £200 million investment in rooftop solar.
UK reaches 7GWh of BESS, but growth slowed in 2024; Ireland grows
As with the solar roundup from Josh Cornes mentioned above, a January piece using Solar Media Market Research figures to summarise 2024’s BESS deployment was well-read. Read the market research team’s summary of UK and Ireland BESS deployment.
In-depth reporting based on Solar Media Market Research’s UK Battery Storage Project Database Report has this year been available to Premium subscribers on Energy-Storage.news, with overviews published to our site. In 2026, Solar Power Portal will take over the series, making monthly UK BESS market updates available to all of our readers.
‘Vicious policy fight’ continues as decision on zonal pricing looms
Arguably one of the biggest announcements of 2025 was the government’s chosen pathway after its review of electricity market arrangements (REMA).
Before the news broke, our piece on the two sides of the argument featured comments from Regen’s direct Johnny Gowdy and Octopus Energy. The piece was more widely read than our original coverage of the decision, REMA: UK government rejects zonal pricing.
The next steps for investors were explored in a contributed blog from Aurora Energy Research.
Ones to watch: NSIP movements in 2025
One of our articles from this time last year, published right on the cusp of 2025, was our roundup of NSIP projects on the planning inspectorate’s radar that were set to progress in 2025.
Like the top-ten piece mentioned above, the article serves as an unofficial database for UK solar NSIPs and remains largely unchanged, with some project progression covered since then, including the approvals dished out by energy secretary Ed Miliband.
DESNZ reveals providers and projects for Warm Homes Skills Programme
In September, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) revealed the complete list of subsidised training courses which will be offered under its Warm Homes Skills Programme.
The scheme was launched in April this year to provide up to 9,000 subsidised training opportunities for people seeking to enter the solar panel installation or retrofit workforce.
Building on this, the government outlined its goals and methods for equitably developing a clean energy workforce through its ‘Clean Energy Jobs Plan’, published in October.
Thank you for reading and supporting our coverage this year.