Solar Media Staff

As we enter another month, another planning application is submitted for a utility-scale solar park. This time the location is Somerset; the application for the 10 acre park submitted to Taunton Deane Council this week.

Situated on the Glastonbury festival farmland, Britain’s largest privately owned solar power plant is now fully operational. Conventionally home to residents of the furry variety, the 1,500m2 cowshed roof will now feature a huge array of over 1,000 solar panels. Solarsense UK, specialist in agricultural and industrial photovoltaic installations in the south west, has now competed the 200kW plant…

The Climate Change Fund programme has now installed its 100th solar photovoltaic system in Islington, London. The scheme, aimed at encouraging microgeneration and energy efficiency in homes in the area, is working towards cutting borough-wide CO2 emissions by 15% by the end of 2011.

Adding to numerous other companies in the race for the first large-scale solar power plant in the UK, Dorset developer Eco Sustainable Solutions reveals its plans to power more than 1,000 homes each year. If it is given the go ahead the thirty acre 5MW project, known as Parley Solar Farm, will also save more than 1,100 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.

A village near Ely in Cambridgeshire could soon be home to a five megawatt solar power plant, becoming East Anglia’s biggest installation to date. Local firm Abbey Renewables has outlined plans to build the 35-acre solar farm in Wilburton on land on Mingay Farm along Twenty Pence Road in the village.

Will and Catherine Homoky won their solar PV system by entering the ‘Home of the Future’ competition, resulting in their Bristol home being fitted with an array of solar panels.

With the HM Treasury review done and dusted, the feed-in tariff (FiT) for micro-generation that includes solar energy has emerged unscathed. This is good news and a clear indication that both Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians recognise that supporting renewable energy should remain a key strategy to meet carbon reduction goals set for 2020 through 2050.

It is no surprise that since the good news about the future of the UK’s feed-in tariff was revealed there have been several announcements about renewable energy projects across the country. In line with this trend, installer Solarcentury has received financial support from Investment management firm Foresight.

Three solar schemes are to be implemented on the Isle of Wight, at land in Blackwater, Newchurch and Porchfield. Two of the plants will be developed by German company Kronos, while the third is to be constructed by new Island firm, Island Energy. All three projects are expected to be complete by the summer of 2011.

German solar pioneer Wagner & Co has joined forces with one of the leading suppliers of photovoltaic equipment in southern England, AC Solartechnic. The new joint venture, named Wagner Solar UK, will do business beginning in November from AC Solartechnic´s present site in Sidlesham, near Chichester, West Sussex.