Solar has just had its biggest summer yet in Britain, and it wasn’t only because the sun was shining.
Across June, July and August 2026, solar farms and rooftop systems generated a record 8.8TWh of electricity, according to analysis from Carbon Brief. That’s 23% more than the same period in 2025 and twice the amount generated during summer 2021. July alone set a new monthly record, with solar supplying around 15% of electricity demand.
Of course, an exceptionally sunny summer helped. But there’s another reason records keep being broken: Britain simply has a lot more solar than it used to.
Government figures show that 2025 was already a record year for solar deployment, with 269,000 installations completed across the UK. By March 2026, the UK had passed two million solar installations in total. Solar Energy UK also reported that more solar installations were completed in the first half of 2026 than in any other six-month period since the end of the Feed-in Tariff era.
So this summer’s records tell us something bigger than simply “it was a good summer for solar”. More homes and businesses are now able to turn the daylight hitting their roofs into electricity they can use themselves.
Could your roof be next?
Solar generation naturally varies throughout the year, with longer, brighter summer days typically producing more electricity than the shorter days of winter. But it’s the generation across the year that matters — helping to reduce the amount of electricity you need to buy from the grid and making more use of the energy available from your own roof.
Find out what solar could generate at your property and explore our solar & battery options.
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