Energy regulator Ofgem has released figures detailing the performance of the feed-in tariff (FiT) policy from the fourth quarter of the scheme that has now entered its third year.
In addition to recent figures, Ofgem has also examined the role of the FiT since it was introduced in April 2010.
According to Ofgem's statistics, some 379,530 renewable installations have been made under the scheme, up until the end of March 2013. Furthermore, 1,792.46MW of Total Installed Capacity has been registered under the FiT scheme in this time period.
For consumers taking up the scheme, close to £95 million has been paid out in quarter four of the scheme, from January 1st until the end of March alone.
In the most recent FiT quarter, a total of 21,260 registrations were made, with 20,643 of these made in terms of solar photovoltaics.
The regulator has noted a number of changes to the FiT, as implemented by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. This has included a review of the enactment of changes to small-scale solar photovoltaic systems, an amendment of tariffs and the introduction of a quarterly degression system.
Ofgem also discovered that of all total FiT activity, the south-east and London had the greatest percentage of solar installations over other technologies, but that the south-west had the highest total installed capacity – standing at 375.37MW by the end of March.
It has been discovered that England also has the higher average solar photovoltaic capacity per installation (4.3kW) than any other studied nation, with Wales and Scotland recording average figures of 3.60kW and 3.59kW respectively.
During the last year of the scheme, 131,864 installations were made, accounting for over a third of all installations since the initiative was introduced. Furthermore, the 702.9MW installed during the year made up two-fifths of total capacity.