The government has pledged to switch off coal plants by 2025 and the World Wide Fund for Nature has argued that they should seek alternative replacements instead of building new large gas-fired power stations, the Guardian reports. The environmental group believes that renewables, battery storage and flexible technologies should be used to fill the gap [...]
Necessity the 'mother' of invention Nothing generates change as swiftly as need; they say that “necessity is the mother of invention” and there is no doubt that necessity has fuelled (pardon the pun), the growth in renewable energy. However, it is worth keeping in mind that this is still a reasonably nascent industry; so the [...]
As we look ahead to the end of the Feed in Tariff next year I have been reflecting how far solar in the UK has come. Falling prices Look at Currys circa 2006 as a reference point – a year when the high-street electrical retailer dabbled in selling solar panels direct to the public. The [...]
2017 was the greenest year on record for UK energy generation, according to researchers from Imperial College London. The year saw Britain producing more energy from renewable sources than ever before. Dr Iain Staffell’s Electric Insights report showed that 50% of the country’s electricity came from low carbon sources last year. The combined energy produced [...]
A changing corporate focus The Harvard Business Review (HBR) article “Energy Strategy for the C-Suite” highlights that “sweeping environmental, social and business trends have propelled energy up the corporate agenda. But most firms still approach energy as merely a cost to be managed.” There is little doubt that energy is becoming a strategic issue for [...]
Scientists from Soochow University in China have developed a new device that enables solar panels to generate electricity from raindrops as well as sun rays, according to the Guardian. One of the key barriers to the adoption of solar power is that PV panels produce intermittently. However. innovators have been making significant strides in improving [...]
As Zestec’s funded solar PPA projects near completion our technical team prepare a punch list; a list of any issues that need to be resolved before handover. Whilst the majority of installers deliver top quality installations, over the years we have seen a whole range of standards. In this article we highlight the top 5 [...]
A record-breaking rooftop solar array is to be built by Tesla at its Gigafactory 1 (GF1) in Nevada, USA. According to Ecowatch, the 70-megawatt system will be the world’s largest by a long stretch. The GF1 factory is already an ‘all-electric’ site; the company claims no fossil fuels are directly consumed there. The huge GF1 [...]
There are 125,000 electric vehicles (EVs) on UK roads and this figure is set to boom, reaching 1 million by 2020 and 9 million by 2030, according to the National Grid. With that in mind, the BRE has recently issued a new guide for solar car parks, looking at how parking facilities can combine energy [...]
A growing opportunity for businesses The move to renewable energy is an irreversible journey; not only are fossil fuels a finite resource but the lobby for clean fuel is only going to get increasingly intense. Whilst it has moved on in the last few years, the government indicated in its 2014 Solar Strategy that there [...]