Britain's sunniest Spring in decades generates record levels of solar energy

5 June 2025, 06:20 | Updated: 5 June 2025, 06:25

Britain’s sunniest Spring in over a century has generated record amounts of solar power, new research has revealed.

The UK basked in 43 per cent more sunshine than average this year, the most since records began 115 years, the Met Office confirmed this week.

This unusual amount of sunshine has led a huge boost in energy generation from solar panels.

In total, 7.6 terawatt hours of electricity was generated from solar panels during the first five months of the year, according to the National Energy System Operator.

Read more: Heavy rain and thunder to batter parts of UK - as Met Office predicts 'changeable' weather

This marks a 43 per cent increase from the average amount of energy generated during that period in the UK.

“Solar power is rising faster than most people realise,” Simon Evans, senior policy editor at climate and energy website Carbon Brief, told The Times.

“It is cheap, fast to install and every unit of electricity it generates here in the UK displaces two units of imported gas.”

Despite historic levels of sunshine this Spring, the hot weather looks set to come to an end this week.

Showers will be seen across all areas of the UK at some point this week, with a continuation of cooler and "a bit breezy" weather, the Met Office said.

And on Friday night a new weather front will bring rain, which potentially could be heavy and thundery at times on Saturday, Met Office spokesperson Andrea Bishop said.

The Met Office is keeping an eye on the weather front, which will affect the southern half of the UK where rainfall totals of between 20-30mm are likely, she said.

But next week temperatures are set to rise to just above average for the time of year.

Ms Bishop said: "The weather will be changeable for the rest of this week, with everyone likely to see some showers at some point.

"Generally, the theme is the continuation of something a bit cooler, a bit breezy at times, and a bit wet at times too.

"We are keeping an eye on a new front which looks like it will move in on Friday night, bringing rain which could be heavy, and possibly thundery at times on Saturday.

"Rainfall totals of 20-30mm are likely in places and at present, this looks like it will affect the southern half of the UK. We are keeping a close eye on this to see how it evolves over the next 24 hours or so."