Barratt warns of skills shortage if solar panels made mandatory for new homes
The UK’s biggest housebuilder has warned of a skills shortage in the country’s solar panel sector, if the government decides to make the installation of solar panels mandatory for new-build houses.
It has suggested there would need to be significant boost in training for new technicians to meet such demand.
Oliver Novakovic, technical and innovation director at Barratt Developments, told Morning Wire that the FTSE 100 firm was “supportive of having solar panels on all new homes” in line with regulatory requirements already imposed in Scotland.
However, he believed the policy needs more consideration before it is implemented throughout the UK.
“If solar panels become compulsory everywhere, one of the biggest challenges will be the shortage of skills. We are working with manufacturers and our trades to ensure that training is in place and everyone is in a position to scale-up, although this won’t happen overnight,” he said.
Demand for solar technicians is already rising, with hiring platform Indeed reporting a 315 per cent increase in demand for installers over the last three years.
By the next decade, industry body Solar Energy UK is forecasting that 60,000 people will be employed within the solar sector by the end of the decade – up from the 7,000 recorded in 2020.
Solar panels are being installed in record levels across the UK this year, with savvy consumers looking to shift from ultra-high gas prices and go green to save money on their energy bills.
If the current pattern of growth continues, about 230,000 installations will be made in 2023, according to the latest data from industry certifier MCS – shared exclusively with Morning Wire last week.
This would raise the number of solar roofs from 1.24m to 1.47m across the UK.
But with roughly 23m homes still bereft of any rooftop insulation, even more technicians will be needed to meet soaring in customer demand – especially with demand rising across industrial buildings, public sector buildings, farmland, and national infrastructure.
Industry groups push for rooftop solar
There are growing calls from the industry and climate think tanks for solar panels on new builds to be made compulsory – calling for the requirement to be included in upcoming housing requirements.
The government’s proposed update to building regulations, the Future Homes Standard, is expected to be mandatory for new houses from 2025 – which aims to drive down carbon emissions 75-80 per cent.
Mooted reforms include requirements on companies to boost heat pumps and solar panel installations as a growing proportion of their products compared to gas boilers.
However, Solar Energy UK has urged the government to make solar panels mandatory on new builds except for in extreme cases.
Green Alliance have argued that boosting household installations of solar panel will be essential to meet the government’s energy security goals of 70GW by 2035, a near five-fold increase over the next 12 years.
Helena Bennett, head of climate policy, told City A.M. said: “Solar power remains one of the cheapest ways to bring down soaring energy bills, meet our net zero targets and end reliance on fossil fuel imports. It’s cheap to install, and cheap to maintain. We should be making it as easy as possible for households to take advantage of this pivotal technology in addressing the climate crisis, and finding ways to accelerate the UK’s goals for solar power generation.”
Meanwhile, shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband has hinted that Labour could require newly-built homes to have solar panels on their roofs if it wins the next election.
Speaking after a speech on green investment earlier this year, he revealed his party was “very interested” in the idea.
When approached for comment, a government spokesperson said: “Solar is an important part of our strategy for increasing the energy performance of buildings and achieving net zero by 2050. That is why, in 2021, we set the performance standards for new buildings at a level that means most new homes will likely be built with solar panels.”
They confirmed the government is working to publish a full technical consultation later this year on the Future Homes Standard.