Norwegian residential solar marketplace Otovo has reported that solar installation prices for British households fell by 13% in the six-month period to March 2023. This decrease is expected to continue, with both the cost of panels and labour likely to fall further due to the current 0% VAT on UK residential solar systems. This reduction is good news for UK consumers, especially since home solar installations are at a seven-year high, with 60,000 completed in Q1 2023, a 114% increase on the same quarter last year, according to consumer standards organization MCS.

In 2022, solar costs increased due to supply chain disruptions caused by the end of Covid and the Ukraine war. However, Otovo predicts that prices will decrease significantly by the middle of 2023, returning to the long-term trend of declining solar costs that saw prices for solar modules fall about 90% between 2000-2021. Otovo provided data on cost-per-watt from the Swedish market, which it claims is representative of most of Europe.

Otovo plans to introduce a solar leasing model this year, pending regulatory approval, to widen consumer access further. Jina Kwon, Otovo’s UK and Ireland general manager, notes that the current solar cost curve is favorable to UK consumers, and industry bottlenecks have cleared up, drastically reducing the wait time between booking and installation. Otovo also highlights that high electricity prices could result in record-low payback times.

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