Large scale Solar power could be the best option moving forward

Could the world be run on solar power?

It’s widely acknowledged that the vast majority of currently used fossil fuels are running out, so much so that some scientists predict that we will be bereft of these fuel sources inside a century.

Its time to look at other forms of power, everyone agrees on that. One of the most viable long term solutions to the forecast power shortfalls is the widespread implementation of Solar Power.

As a comparison , the Solar Energy that hits a square mile in a year is the energy equivalent of over 4 million barrels of oil.

To match current energy demands the amount of area required to be tuned over to solar PV  would be around 0.2% of the total earth land mass. Read the rest of this entry »

Rochdale Borough Council have recently broken ground on what is to be the UK’s first publicly owned commercial solar farm. In its quest to become the UK’s most environmentally green local authority, the Council have undertaken a project to develop a sector of waste ground into a 250 kWp commercial solar plant.
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Swedish Flat-pack giant Ikea started a partnership with Chinese thin-film solar manufacturer Hanergy to bring easy Solar PV to domestic properties across the UK. Following an initial trial period the scheme was rolled out to all 18 of the Nordic superstores UK locations and saw huge uptake. Read the rest of this entry »

1,000,000 Rooftops in the UK will have Solar panels by 2015

Latest Government figures estimate that UK Solar Installers will have delivered one million rooftops by 2015 and recently reached the 500,000 mark.

This only measures those signed up to the feed in Tariff and so the numbers may be larger and it also doesn’t take into account Commercial Solar Installations either which has been on the increase over the last couple of years.

This is not only great for the industry and Government, who look set to reach their targets, but its also great for those property owners that are taking advantage of earning money from the energy they produce as well as enjoying free or greatly reduced energy bills.
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It is a real misconception that Solar only really works during the summer months, this is completely untrue. In fact Solar panels are often more efficient in colder weather and produce more energy.

The downside to the winter months is that it’s darker for longer and with less hours of sunshine, less energy can be produced, so it’s a balancing act between the two. But what if it snows?

Removing Snow from your Solar panels

The best thing to do is, drum roll ………..

Nothing, do not touch them. Read the rest of this entry »

Having just passed the Summer solstice on June 21 and the midway point of the UK’s solar-based calendar,  this would seem an apt time to reflect on how the industry is faring now that 2013 is six months old.

June has not just been bright for the PV market in terms of panel output, but the latest statistics from DECC show a healthy return in installed capacity to a rate not seen since last October.

In the week ending June 23, over 3,000 installations were registered in the sub 50kW band with a cumulative capacity of more than 13MW.   Whilst this is still a far cry from the heady days of 2011 before Read the rest of this entry »