It felt Mediterranean, and the instruments agree. From 1 June to 16 August, southern and central England took 6.37 kWh of sunlight per square metre per day — the brightest such stretch in the fourteen years Sheffield Solar has been measuring it — at an average daily high of 24.3°C, also a record.
Britain's solar fleet responded with a record of its own: 15.9 TWh generated by 16 August, more than any year before it.
Then the odd part.
Measured per panel, 2026 was unremarkable. Each installed megawatt returned 676 MWh over the year to date — only the sixth best in fourteen years, and barely above the long-run average of about 665. The record came from having more panels, not from better weather. Britain's solar growth is a build story, not a sunshine story.
Push on the summer alone and it gets stranger still.