Sun surge: two in five new homes in England now have solar panels
For a growing number of homeowners, sunny weekends like this are a boost not just to their wellbeing but their financial health.
Two in five new-build homes in England are now fitted with solar panels, a significant shift as Labour embarks on a drive to create 1.5 million new properties by 2029. Building sites have seen a solar surge in the past year, with a tripling in the share of new homes with solar photovoltaic panels.
Data from the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, analysed by the industry body Solar Energy UK, shows the proportion with solar power was 42 per cent in the final three months of last year. In the same period a year earlier it was just 13 per cent.
“Our previous house was 26 years old so we were very pleased when we found out that these new-builds did have the solar panels on the roof and an air-source heat pump,” Mandy Bunce, 64, a retired professional who last week moved into a home built by Cotswold Homes in the Wiltshire village of Great Somerford, said.
“We’ve had some really frosty mornings in Wiltshire and we’ve had no issues at all. The house has been really cosy,” she said.
During the sunny spell she’s enjoyed seeing how much electricity the panels are generating. “We have a little unit in a cupboard in our hallway that clicks around as solar panels take in all the radiation. It’s quite intriguing,” she added.
Mandy Bunce and her husband Bruce have bought a new home with solar panels built by Cotswold Homes
Downsizing with her 65-year old husband, Bruce, the prospect of lower energy bills was part of the new home’s attraction for the recently retired couple.
The reason so many new-builds now have solar is “Part L” energy efficiency regulations in 2023. They can be met with improved insulation, a heat pump or solar panels, with homebuilders free to choose what they consider best — which increasingly is solar.
The time lag from the new rules having an impact is because they only apply to when construction starts, so it has taken a while for compliant homes to be finished.
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However, the growth in solar has come with a decrease in the average size of solar systems being installed, with some developers fitting relatively small ones. The average capacity has dropped from about 4 kilowatts at the end of 2023 to 2.4kW at the end of last year.
There are now about 1.6 million homes with solar panels in England, with about 8,000 to 10,000 systems installed a month on existing homes in the past year. However, it remains unclear whether the government will go ahead with plans to mandate solar panels on all new homes.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has said he is “very sympathetic” to including the mandate in the Future Homes Standard, but the communities department has yet to decide. Bunce said that solar panels should “definitely” be fitted to new builds.
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The Home Builders Federation, an industry group, said it was supportive of solar panels on new properties, but it did not want a mandate because it believes not all house and roof types are appropriate for the technology.
“To meet the ever more challenging carbon reductions set by the government we will see solar on the overwhelming majority of new homes, albeit it is not appropriate in every situation,” an HBF spokesman said.
The communities department was contacted for comment.