Solar Media Staff

With energy rises at an all-time high and the fuel poverty issue escalating, consumers are becoming increasingly savvier to the benefits of investing in sustainable products – with solar power being central to this. Jerry Hamilton considers how the results of a recent market survey indicate consumer confidence in the solar technology and the birth of the UK’s solar revolution.

Solar PV cleaning specialist, Clean Solar Solutions has signed a two-year contract with inverter manufacturer, SMA for the annual cleaning of 110,000 solar panels on a site near Wellingborough.

As the post-election dust settles, the NextEnergy Solar Fund’s Abid Kazim looks at what the surprise result means for the PV investment community

Kent-based solar developer, Countryside Renewables has won planning permission for a 5MW solar farm in Lincolnshire.

Construction of a 40MW solar farm has been completed at the site of a new MOD training facility at RAF Lyneham, becoming the first project to form part of the government’s project to install 1GW of solar on government land.

A lack of clarity from Ofgem over specifics of the government’s split-ownership commercial and community scheme has not dissuaded developers from pursuing the “difficult” process, says RegenSW chief executive Merlin Hyman.

The UK is expected to remain the largest solar PV growth market in Europe through 2016, despite the end of the ROC system in April this year, which fuelled a utility-scale ground mount rush over the last year, pushing the UK to exceed 2GW installed in 2014.

Former energy secretary and chairman of the London Sustainable Development Commission, Greg Barker, has told the industry that the commission has solar is in the “middle of its gunsights” and is looking to install the technology in the capital “with greater ambition and greater scale”.

Property developer Cross Keys Homes has hailed its £16.5 million rooftop solar scheme a success after installing solar systems on social housing roofs in Peterborough.

Despite the UK becoming Europe’s largest ground-mount solar market in 2015, just 16 developers have completed more than 100MW of UK projects, according to statistics to be revealed in Solar Intelligence’s upcoming UK Large-Scale Ground-Mount Solar UK report.