Solar Media Staff

Plans to develop a 2.63MW solar farm next to a recycling plant in Reigate, Surrey, are to be deliberated by Reigate and Banstead Borough Council.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change is to proceed with significant cuts to subsidies available for solar projects and could announce the cuts “within weeks”, according to BBC World at One.

Japanese car manufacturer Nissan is to learn the fate of its plan to develop a 4.8MW solar farm at its Wearside manufacturing facility in Sunderland next week.

The renewables industry is in turbulent times. The surprise removal of the Climate Change Levy Exemption status, the closure of the Renewables Obligation to onshore wind, the imminent review of the feed-in tariff, the overspending of the Levy Control Framework and its implications for the second round of of Contacts for Difference (CfDs) are just a few current issues. It seems politics rather than pragmatism is calling the tune on renewables policy.

The judges for this year’s Solar Power Portal Awards have been confirmed.

Solar Impulse might have stolen this year’s headlines for solar-powered transport, however a 60-strong team of engineers at Cambridge University is aiming to match the aircraft’s successful summer when it competes in October’s Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.

The former minister of energy and climate change Greg Barker has been named the new president of the British Photovoltaic Association (BPVA).

UK think tank Policy Exchange has accused the Department for Energy and Climate Change of “reckless and wasteful” management of renewable subsidies and recommended sweeping cuts to the small-scale feed-in tariff to help curb an overspend.

The new Conservative government has been in power for less than three months but has already announced a tranche of anti-green policies and undermined investor confidence in the sector, precisely what the renewables industry pleaded with it not to do prior to the general election.

Energy storage can become a “significant” component for future balancing of the National Grid, but must overcome policy challenges if it is to realise its potential.