Wood Mackenzie has predicted that the UK will join Europe’s “vanguard of subsidy-free utility-scale solar PV” in 2019 as project costs continue to fall.
In a new report, authored by Wood Mackenzie analysts Tom Heggarty and Benjamin Attia, the consultancy firm has charted the top ten trends to watch in the year ahead and has predicted the UK to be among Europe’s leading adopters of subsidy-free PV developments in 2019.
It points to a purported 2.3GW pipeline of projects that could be delivered, however Solar Media’s in-house market research team places its pipeline somewhat higher, at just shy of 3GW.
Wood Mackenzie points to the corporate PPA market and rapidly declining project costs as the key drivers for the UK market in the coming 12 months, citing Lightsource BP’s 300MW-strong pipeline of PPA-backed projects – which Solar Power Portal revealed last month – as one such example.
But perhaps more pertinently for solar PV, Wood Mackenzie expects solar PV costs “heading towards £40/MWh in the UK”, a price which would make projects “look attractive to potential offtakers compared to power prices”.
Read more: Solar Power Portal