UK rooftop solar courtesy of DECCC.
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As the UK experiences extreme temperatures, with forecasts above 37°C, think tank Ember finds that households with rooftop solar are powering the equivalent of five hours of air conditioning a day.
Solar and air conditioning have similar seasonal patterns, meaning that when the need for cooling hits, solar is likely to be generating at a high level. On the 21st and 22nd of June 2026 a typical UK rooftop solar installation generated 15 MWh, equivalent to five hours of electricity demand from a full-house air conditioning set up (at 3 kW) per day.
Across the 1.9 million UK homes with rooftop solar, the equivalent to 10 million solar-powered air conditioning hours have been generated each day of the heat wave so far. Although rooftop generation will be split across all household electricity use, this hints at the potential for cost-effective cooling in the future, particularly as home batteries become more common.
