Solar Power Growing in England

U.K. solar power installer jobs have increased by 75 percent this year as government incentives spurred demand for photovoltaic panels, Solar Century Holdings Ltd. said.

The combined number of employees for Solar Century, which builds solar systems for homebuilders Persimmon Plc and Barratt Developments Plc, and 11 companies it works with to install panels has risen to 350 from 200 at the beginning of the year, the London-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. There will be “well over 500 jobs by 2011,” it said.

“The vast bulk of the solar PV employment created in the regions is in skilled and semi skilled roofing and electrical jobs,” the company said.

Britain in April introduced feed-in tariffs, or guaranteed prices for electricity from renewable energy at up to 10 times market rates. That’s prompted a boom in solar installations, with installations of photovoltaic panels, or PV, totalling 4.6 megawatts -- more than in the whole of 2009.

Sharp Corp., Japan’s largest maker of solar cells, last month said it will double production at its U.K. solar panel plant, the country’s largest.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.