Octopus tariff will see customers donate fixed sum to fuel poverty charities for every kilowatt-hour of electricity exported to the grid. The utility is also offering free solar and battery installations for eligible customers receiving Warm Home Discount support.

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners announces two long-term agreements covering 100% of solar power generation at Cleve Hill Solar Park. British supermarket retailer Tesco has signed a 15-year agreement covering 65% of generation and Shell will manage remaining capacity under 10-year route-to-market deal.

The UK government has unveiled a cap-and-floor scheme to kick start investment in long-duration energy storage. The first round of applications is scheduled for 2025.

There’s a rejuvenated feeling in the UK solar market where a new government is making positive signals and considering key policy changes aimed at speeding up project commissioning. For storage, there’s still serious interest in utility-scale deployment with some significant projects in the pipeline.

The Chilean solar market is booming but as curtailment grows, a hybrid approach to generation is gaining ground. Storage project announcements are coming thick and fast as co-location with wind turbines offers cost efficiency and a smoother generation profile. Meanwhile, new capacity mechanism rules could take Chile one step closer to runaway battery growth.

Cottam Solar Project secures approval through national infrastructure consent process. The 600 MW solar and storage development is the fourth major solar project to secure UK government approval in a three-month period.

Record contracts for difference (CfDs) auction for UK solar results in more than 90 projects securing fixed-price contracts. It follows intervention from the new UK government in summer 2024 to increase the auction budget. Strike prices achieved for all renewables technologies were well below the auction’s ceiling price.

More than 4,500 certified heat pump installations were recorded in the United Kingdom in July 2024, while battery storage installations continue to significantly outperform previous years. Subsidy schemes that slash the cost of installing a heat pump are a key growth driver, according to the industry.

Greatest capacity uplift of 2024 recorded in July as provisional deployment data suggests 1.2 GW added over 12-month period. Domestic installations continue to account for the lion’s share of new additions, but the UK government is seeking views on planning reforms aimed at accelerating deployment of larger-scale solar farms.

As a new phase of government-backed flexibility tariff trials gets underway in the United Kingdom, LCP delta analyst Shaz Shamim tells pv magazine how phase-one research revealed consumers can be convinced to hand over control when cost savings are combined with better understanding.