Where would you expect to see the lowest level of solar panel installations in the United Kingdom in relation to the number of domestic properties? Your initial reaction is probably somewhere that they do not receive as much sunshine such as in certain parts of Scotland.
Well, you would be wrong because it is in many London boroughs that the level of solar panel installations are at the lowest – yes, the capital city of England! Would London have been anywhere near the top of your list of possibilities?
WSP Group, that is a management consultancy, property and construction engineering services business, has produced a league table that reveals these interesting figures. Data produced by the government in April 2013 shows that 362,000 houses in the UK have had solar panels put on their properties since April 2010 – that means around one home in about seventy now has solar panels fitted.
The River Thames at Westminster
(image credit: wallygrom)
The ten places at the bottom of this table are all filled by local authorities in London boroughs. Taking up bottom spot is Westminster with only one in 2,500 homes having had solar panels installed. Following them are Tower Hamlets and the City of London as they only have one solar panel installation for every 1,250 homes.
So, that is the bottom end of the league table but where are the top performing local authorities situated?
Well, at the very top, in number one spot is Mid Devon with an impressive one in twelve homes having had solar panels installed. Immediately below them are Wrexham and South Hams.
Interestingly, of the top 25 local authorities, 12 of them are situated in the South West making that region the largest installer of solar panels on a proportionate basis. Is this surprising, when you consider that they receive more sunshine than elsewhere in the UK?
Right at the beginning we mentioned Scotland. Well, Dumfries and Galloway had 246 out of 10,000 homes with solar panels fitted putting it in 55th place in the league table out of a total of 760 and this despite having low sunshine levels.
Across the UK, the league table revealed that around 1.5% of homes had had solar panels fitted.
We have a long, long way to go.
