Solar Media Staff

According to the Director of the National Home Improvement Council the UK has a long way to go before it comes close to meeting the 80% target of energy efficient housing stock by 2050.

Abbey Fields Community Centre in Winchcombe was awarded £6,100 to go towards developing its solar power system. Tewkesbury Borough Council provided a second round of funding to help the Cotswold-based building to generate more than 8,000kWh of renewable electricity each year.

Amid all of the uncertainty surrounding the larger solar power installations at present, it is encouraging to hear that a 99.9kWp system has been completed in Oxfordshire. Spanning two barn roofs, John Woolcock’s farm now features integrated solar technology, which has been developed for agricultural buildings…

Although plans for some of the large-scale solar parks in the UK are going ahead, not all are so optimistic. A solar park intended to be installed on the outskirts of Weymouth is now on hold as the company responsible for developing it waits to hear the results of the fast-track feed-in tariff review.

Last year we reported that Prince Charles had finally won the battle to install solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of his London residence, Clarence House. The Grade II listed building, which already covered almost a quarter of its electricity needs with renewable energy, now features 30 solar PV panels on its south facing roof.

The Royal Bath & West of England Society has announced that it plans to carry on with work on its 14ha (approximately 5MW) solar photovoltaic park, despite Government’s recently announced feed-in tariff review.

This residential installation was completed by Evo Energy for Mr. Lindsay, who wanted to generate clean electricity and reduce the cost of living expenses.

As we all try and pick ourselves back up from recent knockbacks in the UK’s renewable energy sector, it’s worrying to find out that we missed our renewable energy target for 2010 by 3.5%. As a result, the levels of confidence we have in reaching the much larger, more daunting target set for 2020 are plummeting by the second.

UK solar integration company Solar Fusion has today announced a £52 million multi-year framework agreement with Surface Power, the solar thermal systems manufacturer. The contract, which has been signed under the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), is set to kick-start the next stage of solar development in the UK.

Since the launch of the fast-track feed-in tariff review I have had several meetings with fairly disgruntled industry members. Most of these gatherings however, have been constructive, and none more so than this morning’s get-together with local authority members at Eversheds in London.