Businesses, farmers and communities invested more than £400 million – or £1.1 million a day – in independent renewable energy projects last year.

That’s according to a new report, which revealed the projects – a total of 1,619 – included wind turbines, solar and on-site generation plants.

The average investment was £258,000 – down from £352,000 the year before – “reflecting a higher proportion of solar projects which tend to be lower volume than other renewable projects”, the report stated.

Just under 46% of all new independent projects in 2014 were solar.

The total capacity of commercial-scale independent renewable projects now stands at more than 8.5GW, enough to power around 5.7 million households.

Together, they generate electricity estimated to be worth more than £1 billion a year.

Robert Groves, CEO of SmartestEnergy said: “This report has highlighted the resilience of the independent generation sector against the backdrop of political uncertainty, changes to renewable subsidies and falls in wholesale power prices that occurred last year.”

However he believes the changes announced by the government, which includes the Climate Change Levy exemption and onshore wind, “will challenge this growth”.

Independent projects now account for more than a third (37%) of renewable production across the UK and just over 7% of the nation’s total generation.