Solar Media Staff

Gaynor Hartnell, Head of Biogas at the Renewable Energy Association, discusses the recent reforms of the RHI, and how they might affect the renewable heat sector

Inside Clean Energy volume three is available to download for free from today.

The Scottish government has set a target to deliver half the country’s heat, transport and electricity needs from renewable sources by 2030, despite ongoing support for the recovery of oil and gas production.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has refused to commit to a more precise timescale for the publication of its eagerly anticipated emissions reduction plan.

The government has released plans to spend £28 million on reducing the cost of energy storage, advancing demand side response technologies and improving energy efficiency measures for UK industry.

A new domestic storage trial was recently announced to test the impact of domestic storage in limiting the effect of solar on the local grid. Jim Cardwell, head of trading and innovation at Northern Powergrid, the network operator behind the scheme, explained to Solar Power Portal what the operator hopes to get out of it, and what the direction of travel is for grid operators around Great Britain.

The minister for energy and industry has suggested that the government will use homes treated under the newly privatised Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC) to prop up its own manifesto pledge to improve one million homes over the current parliament.

Energy storage has been placed at the heart of the UK’s new industrial strategy as the government attempts to position itself at the forefront of research and innovation in the global market.

The new industrial strategy launched by prime minister Theresa May today is to review the lowest cost way of decarbonising the economy, but has appeared to lock out the majority of renewables.

Entries are now open for this year’s Solar Power Portal Awards 2017.