Developing a new UK solar industry standard for the calculation of residential solar photovoltaic self-consumption

PI: Sarah Darby

Department: Environmental Change Institute

The Feed-in Tariff is a payment made to households or businesses who generate their own electricity through renewable methods. In response to the fall in Feed-in-Tariff, deployment of residential solar photovoltaics (PV) depends increasingly on how much it can help households reduce electricity imported from the grid (‘self-consumption’).

The UK solar industry would benefit from having a standard for the calculation of financial savings from solar self-consumption. This would help customers understand whether solar PV makes sense in their homes, raise consumer confidence in the industry, and help drive adoption of related low-carbon technologies such as electric vehicles.

This proposal will enable Oxford University’s participation in the development of a new industrial standard in collaboration with Solarcentury, one of the world’s leading solar PV companies.

The first 10 GW of solar power in Britain created 34k jobs and £8bn in investment. This is a timely opportunity for Oxford University research to make a demonstrable contribution to enabling the benefits of the next 10 GW of solar.