• Subsidy-free solar is the sustainable face of the UK’s post-FIT landscape, with opportunities abounding across all sectors. Q CELLS, which secured leading module supply market share in UK in 2018, geared up for this exciting journey with a range of new product releases and proactive market engagement as sponsor of the Solar Trade Association’s Rooftop Solar Roadshow.
[Berlin, Germany, May 13, 2019] Hanwha Q CELLS GmbH (“Q CELLS” or “The Company”), the German subsidiary of one of the largest solar cell and module manufacturers in the world, Hanwha Q CELLS Co., Ltd., secured leading market share in the UK in 2018. And as the market-leading company, Q CELLS assumed the role as one of the leading sponsors for this month’s Rooftop Solar Roadshow, hosted by the UK’s Solar Trade Association (STA) to promote solar opportunities in a subsidy-free era.
As the UK’s feed-in tariff (FIT) for solar installations came to a permanent close in March, the nation’s PV landscape has begun adapting to a subsidy-free environment. This post-FIT market abounds with opportunities, given the soaring popularity of solar power in the UK, the tumbling costs of solar components, and the growing awareness that renewable energy must play a vital role in tackling climate change.
These trends were some of the main themes focused on during the STA’s Rooftop Solar Roadshow, of which Q CELLS was one of the main sponsors. The Roadshow toured four major UK cities at the beginning of May, hosting half-day seminars with the aim of supporting Small-to-Medium Enterprise (SME) installers to identify the most optimal ways to operate in the UK’s subsidy-free rooftop PV landscape.
With 96% of UK homes without a solar array installed, the opportunities are vast for more homeowners to embrace the technology. The STA Roadshow provided insight into how the market can unlock new technologies, equip installers with the best technical know-how and marketing strategies, and ensure best practice in terms of installation, upselling and customer care.
Trust and quality to become key drivers in UK solar
On May 1, the UK Parliament became the first government in the world to declare a “climate emergency.” This action followed days of intense protest in London by climate action group Extinction Rebellion, as well as a direct appeal by Swedish student and Climate Strike organizer Greta Thunberg to the British government to take firmer action in addressing climate change.
Hence, the social capital of clean energy has never been higher in the UK. Following the Government’s announcement, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) published a Net Zero Report that discovered that the UK’s low carbon power generation capacity must quadruple by 2050 if the country is to achieve net zero status by that date.
Today, the UK has 155 TWh of low carbon power on the grid. This figure should increase to between 540 TWh and 645 TWh by 2050, according to the CCC. Solar power and wind are perfectly poised to account for the lion’s share of that capacity, and with PV already the most popular form of electricity generation among the UK public, expectations are growing that – even without direct government subsidies – the solar market can shine.
Helping to drive this growth is Q CELLS, which is currently the market leader in the UK according to the latest EuPD Research Global PV InstallerMonitor 2018/2019 survey. The EuPD Research survey also found that Q CELLS is the brand of module most likely to be recommended by UK installers, enjoying a 100.0 Net Promoter Score (NPS), putting Q CELLS ahead of the competition.
