Features

Adaptable, affordable, and easily available, solar PV is altering the renewable energy landscape of the UK one panel at a time – and solar is still capable of doing so much more to galvanise the fight against climate change, writes Q CELLS’ Ian Clover.

As UK battery energy storage capacity drives past the 1GW mark, the industry is now plotting its advance towards the next sizeable hurdle. Solar Media Market Research’s Mollie McCorkindale details how the UK’s battery energy storage market can move towards 10GW of operational capacity.

In the second part of a two-part blog, local authority expert Stephen Cirell completes his list of the most common mistakes made by local authorities when developing solar projects, and how they can be avoided.

Finlay Colville, head of market research at Solar Media, provides a forensic analysis of the UK’s utility-scale solar pipeline, detailing precisely why the market looks set to return to gigawatt-scale deployment this year.

Two years ago the government’s new feed-in tariff regime came into force, starting an immensely difficult period for the solar industry. Deployment has fallen by nearly 80%, and thousands of jobs have been lost. This is the inside track of how it happened.

Liam Stoker reports from Clay Hill Solar Farm, the first solar project to be built in the UK without subsidy support, and discovers how the solar-plus-storage facility was energised.

Following a difficult two years at the hands of policy upheaval, confidence is returning to a community energy sector which has its eyes set very firmly on the future. Amanda Lennon examines just where that future might take community solar as the sector celebrates Community Energy Fortnight.

When The Solar Cloth Company collapsed in June last year, it took with it nearly £1 million of crowd-funded finance. Liam Stoker investigates how this came to pass and potential failures within Crowdcube’s consumer protections.

Following a year in which much progress has been made, Lauren Cook recaps a productive 2016 for the Irish solar market and casts her eyes forward at 2017.

As year on year sales of electric vehicles increase, the technology is forecast to experience a significant boom in the coming years. With charging infrastructure need to support deployment, David Pratt looks at the emerging market for charge points, and how installers can get involved.