Solar Media Staff

British Gas Community Energy has acquired PH Jones Group, the provider of central heating services to the social housing market, for £30 million in cash. This deal marks a major step in the company’s strategy to build its social housing energy services business and help social housing providers across the UK to cut their residents’ energy use, carbon emissions and fuel bills.

Prime Minister David Cameron has made an agreement on emissions that extends past the 2020 boundary, it has been reported. Expected to be announced in full tomorrow, the decision will extend the UK’s carbon budget beyond the existing 2020 deadline up to 2027, and call for a shake-up in the way the country’s energy…

Yesterday afternoon I was lucky enough to be part of a one-off solar power-themed school assembly in Surrey with special guests Rio Ferdinand, Gary Lineker, Dale Winton, Simon Cowell, Graham Norton, Jimmy Carr and David Attenborough…

Adding to the rising number of community energy projects in the UK, Nayland Primary School has unveiled its 15.54kW solar installation in Suffolk. Made possible by the Green Energy Nayland scheme, the school will now benefit from free electricity and bill savings for over 25 years.

Commercial and public organisations who want to generate their own electricity from solar power can now benefit from a new partnership formed between ethical banking specialist Triodos Bank and Solarcentury, the UK-based solar energy company. Through the affiliation, Triodos Bank will own solar installations, making it easier for more people to take advantage of the sun’s power.

This morning the pupils of Hinchley Wood School had more than SATs to get out of bed for. Congratulating the ‘Green Flag’ school on its environmental initiative; impressionist, environmentalist and solar power advocate Alistair McGowan travelled to Surrey to open the brand new solar installation, which is one of the largest in the UK.

According to research conducted by renewable energy website YouGen, there’s a lot of confusion amongst UK residents about the export of solar electricity to the national grid. Reportedly, customers who have installed solar panels are unsure about how the export payments work, and so-called help lines are just making matters worse.

As we move steadily through the month of May, it is exciting to see that the solar photovoltaics industry is till ploughing forward, despite the various setbacks thrown in its path since conception back in 2010. In fact, regulator Ofgem recorded over 10MW of new installations in the month of April 2011 alone, up from just 0.982MW for the same…

In Shanghai just now … at an IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) TC82 – Solar PV energy standards meeting. More delegates than I have ever seen at these meetings.

Providing a much-needed boost to the UK solar industry, SKYShades, the lightweight, thin-film flexible solar power roofing company, is sponsoring The SKYShades Garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. As part of its official launch at the world-renowned exhibition, the company will be showcasing the world’s first retractable photovoltaic awning.