Responding to Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles’ announcement that the permitted development threshold for rooftop solar panels on commercial property is to be increased from 50KW to 1MW, the Renewable Energy Association's Chief Executive Dr Nina Skorupska said:
 
“We are delighted with today’s announcement which will make it much easier for factories, farms, hospitals, bus stations and other commercial buildings to generate their own sustainable electricity while also saving themselves money and resources.
 
“Solar installed on commercial buildings has the potential to generate significant amounts of clean electricity, yet it is a considerably underdeveloped area, and the rigidity of the planning system has long been a major barrier to its progress.
 
“Doubling the threshold before a full planning application is required for a solar installation is a simple but effective step which will lift the shackles from the sector, and will help developers avoid uncertainty in terms of degression of feed-in tariff rates.”