A few years ago, it felt like we were in the midst of a clean
energy revolution, with the UK Government offering generous
subsidies and enticing feed-in tariffs for both small and
large-scale solar installations. New-build houses often included
solar arrays on their roofs, and it seemed as though solar farms
were popping up every few miles along British roads.
However, in recent years, Government subsidies have been reduced
and, as a result, solar installations are a far less attractive
proposition. We're approaching a time when the cost of
manufacturing and installing solar systems is low enough that the
return on investment makes installations just about feasible even
without generous subsidies, but the UK solar industry definitely
seems to have slowed down. The US appears to have experienced a
similar downturn, partially as a result of tariffs having been
applied to basic solar equipment.
