This includes 14 sites connected under the Feed-In tariff (FIT) and 9 sites under the Renewable Obligations Certificate (ROC) schemes. Additionally, Lightsource has plans to connect a further 14 ground-mount sites totalling 92MW by March 31st - taking its total installed capacity in the UK to 1.3GW.

In response to the recent UK government changes to the solar subsidy mechanism, Lightsource will be installing and connecting its first subsidy-free sites in 2016. According to the company, the Lightsource private-wire Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) will see large-scale solar sites “hard-wired” directly into large electricity users – beating the retail price that they are paying for electricity. 

Nick Boyle, CEO of Lightsource, said: “Whilst we are still taking stock of the recent government announcements concerning solar subsidies, we have big plans for 2016 and expect it to be another busy year.” He continued, “The UK solar industry has made great strides towards a subsidy-free environment. During the FiT and ROC regimes, we have worked hard to drive down costs and built a solid base of knowledge and expertise, which has prepared us for developing our first large-scale sites free of government support. However, it’s a great shame that the cuts to FIT will mean that domestic and commercial & industrial rooftop solar will not be able to enjoy the same success.”