Meeting the costs of the feed-in tariff (FiT) regime has meant solar ‘hasn’t necessarily got a good name’ within government across the board, according to the lead of a new network set up to safeguard the academic future of the technology.
Homeowners in Ireland can now access hundreds of euros in grants to fund the installation of solar and energy storage systems as the government launches its first micro-generation scheme for the technology.
Solar consumption is set to increase at B&Q’s Swindon distribution centre under plans by owner Kingfisher to add energy storage to make better use of the electricity generated by the site’s rooftop solar array.
Independent Lancashire brewery Moorhouse’s says it will be able to produce one million pints of solar-powered beer each year after installing a 50kWp system on its main roof.
Online retail giant Amazon is planning to install rooftop solar PV on at least three of its UK-based fulfilment centres, Solar Power Portal can reveal, with just under 3MW of commercial rooftop solar in the pipeline.
Solar developers could be offered ‘time-profiled’ grid access during daylight hours to suit the generation profiles of their sites under a planned shake-up of the distribution network access and charging arrangements.
The installation of solar and battery systems is underway on the Isles of Scilly in the first stage of a £10.8 million project to demonstrate how renewable and smart energy resources can transform the islands’ grid system.
Leonie Greene, director of advocacy and new markets at the Solar Trade Association, analyses what the government’s future of small-scale renewables holds in store and what steps must be taken next.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) expects sub-5MW solar deployment to fall to between 50MW and 100MW each year as a result of its closure of the feed-in tariff scheme, its impact assessment reveals.
