Solar Power First

There are an increasing number of objections being made over the planned construction of a massive solar farm situated on the Gwent Levels. Despite the benefit of the site being able to provide green energy for around 40,000 homes, many local residents are concerned by the fact that the renewable energy hub would cover close to 155-hectares, located between the villages of St Brides and Peterstone.  The plans for the site feature around 250,000 solar panels, with 160 battery storage units and a grid connection hub in place for an initial period of 40 years. In addition to the expectation of saving up to 54,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, those behind the development say it will “enable a group of local landowners to diversify their agricultural enterprise and help secure their livelihood during uncertain times for farming communities”. Nature conservation charity, the RSPB, is among those to have objected to the plan to build entirely on a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Th...

We appreciate that when considering whether or not you’re going to purchase solar panels for your home, one of the key bits of information you’ll be interested in is how much energy solar panels produce in the average day? What are the key factors? Well, when you break that question down, there are actually several factors to consider. The first factor is that of the size of the solar panel system that you choose to install at your home. The larger the system, the more electricity it will produce. A good solar supplier will assess your energy needs and recommend the ideal number of solar panels for your home, ensuring the system produces enough energy per day to suit you. The second factor is the position of the panels, both in the direction the roof is facing and the pitch of the roof. For the ideal performance of solar panels, you should look at installing on a south-facing roof at an angle of 35 degrees. Saying that however, there are a range of positions in which solar panels can ...

We’re always happy to hear of different industries going more “green” as they look to minimise any environmental impact related to their work, but we must admit, our favourite solar-related story of recent times is one we recently heard about the man who is helping to turn ice cream vans solar powered! The man in question is a farmer, David Baker of Styles Farm near Minehead to be specific. He came up with the idea for using solar power to run his ice cream vans after customers at some of the events they catered to were worried about the diesel fumes coming from their existing vans. The solar panels that he has added to the vans are able to power the freezers, the ice-cream makers and the van’s coffee machine. David Baker’s ice cream company are present at over 160 shows across the five months of an average year, with the new solar-powered vans able to produce up to 500 ice creams an hour, matching the output of a traditional ice cream van. A prototype van ran for four days on solar at...

For those considering solar panels, the same few questions often pop up. One of them is with regards to how much energy solar panels produce in a day. It makes sense that you’d want to be sure of exactly what you can expect to generate, electricity-wise. Solar power offers a clean, reliable and renewable energy alternative to traditional methods of powering a home. Living in the UK, you might be worried that the weather is not ideal for solar panels and the generation of solar power, but there is good news. You don’t need sunshine, just daylight! This guide has been put together to explain the processes involved and to highlight the real benefits of solar power in the UK, especially when combined with a solar battery. But more on that later. As the solar panels do their job, they generate energy during the day that can be used towards powering your home. But how much? How Much Electricity Does a Solar Panel Produce? It is hard to give an exact figure for your home, as depending on the...

Across the world, it is estimated that hundreds of millions of birds die as a result of collisions with man-made objects such as windows, telephone masts, wind turbines and planes engines. In many cases this is because the bird has seen a reflection of the sky in an object and not realised there was anything there at all. Ok, that’s sad, you may be thinking, but how does that relate to solar? Well, as the popularity and frequency of solar panels increases across the globe, so do the amount of birds meeting their final moment during a collision with a solar panel.  This problem has been particularly noted in the US, where estimates suggest over 130,000 birds a year die in collisions with solar equipment. So much so, that the key US governmental body the Department of Energy (DoE) have awarded a $1.3m grant to Argonne National Laboratory as they look to develop an automatic bird monitoring system to chart the impact of solar panels on avian life. Adam Szymanski, one of Argonne’s lead...

This is a question that many people have enquired with over the years, so with this handy guide, we aim to supply you with all the information you need to make a decision on how to store energy from solar panels and whether to install solar energy storage . If you are thinking of storing electricity from your solar panels, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is that solar panels, while they can generate solar energy, do not store energy; it is either used towards powering your home at that precise moment, or it is sent back to the Grid. If you want to store energy for future use, you do so by combining the solar panels with a solar battery storage unit. Many solar suppliers now offer solar panels alongside battery storage as our standard option, so you can maximise the potential of solar energy, taking back control of your energy generation and consumption, lowering your energy bills and reducing your carbon footprint. How do solar panels work in the UK? In the UK, more peopl...

  Chances are, very few of us will have heard of Professor Henry Snaith before, but if his new solar panels take off in the way some are suggesting they will, he could soon be a household name - in the solar industry at least! After completing his bachelor’s degree in physics, Prof Snaith did a PhD in photovoltaics at Cambridge. In 2013, Nature, a British weekly scientific journal, named him on its list of ‘ten people who mattered’, in recognition of his next gen solar power research. He also became one of the youngest-ever Fellows of The Royal Society in 2015. “As a child I was very aware of global warming, the impact we’ve had and the problems of intensive farming and deforestation. It’s always been my agenda and I’ve been driven by that. After my undergraduate studies I wanted to work on something useful for society, and I thought energy was a big issue we needed to solve.” That lifelong passion for the environment and depth of study into the solar energy topics has paid off fo...

A group of private and public sector organisations have decided to make a major contribution towards helping Devon become one of the first counties to become net-zero. Their big initiative is to establish a solar panel group-buying scheme as part of their new Carbon Plan, which outlines a strategy with several different ideas for Devon to move towards the day it becomes carbon neutral. Partnering with group buying experts iChoosr Ltd, the team at Devon Climate Emergency (DCE) are providing homeowners around Devon with the option to buy high-quality solar panels for their home at a price that includes a bulk-buy discount.  The initiative is being led by Devon County Council with the support and partnership of ten different Devon planning authorities, namely East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon, Exeter City Council, South Hams, Teignbridge District Council, Torridge District Council, West Devon Borough Council, Dartmoor National Park Authority and Exmoor National Park Authority. It’s e...

For many people interested in a renewable energy source for their home, solar panels are a leading option. But how do you know if your home is suitable? We understand that many potential solar customers have this query, which is why we’ve put together this guide to provide you with all the information you require to answer the question. When it comes to the suitability of homes in the UK to benefit from solar power, we believe that the answer is almost always an emphatic yes . In fact, solar panels can generate significant amounts of solar energy towards powering your home. Aside from some access to natural light and a professional installation team, there isn’t much more needed to get solar panels up, running and generating energy for your home, so what will help you determine whether your home is definitely suitable for solar panels? What are the key concerns for solar panel suitability? There are a variety of considerations with regards to whether or not solar panels are suitable f...

We have decided to put together this handy guide to give you the information you might be searching for before making a decision on whether to purchase a solar panel system. One additional consideration for solar energy customers is that of solar panels increasing the value of a home. There is obviously the question of solar panels cost to factor in, but if they can make your home more valuable, then that could make them an even more attractive proposition! Does having solar panels and storage affect property prices? While we cannot say for sure that solar panels add a specific level of value, they are very likely to increase your home’s Energy Performance Rating, which can only be a positive when it comes to selling your home. In some cases, if you are leaving the solar panels installed at the property, it may well be that a prospective buyer may pay a little more for this. The presence of solar panels and a solar battery can be very enticing to prospective buyers when it comes time ...

We're always happy to see different industries make use of solar energy as a way of moving towards a greener future, so it was great to read recently that Scottish Water have spent somewhere in the region of £450,000 adding around 1,300 solar panels to one of their water treatment sites, servicing a significant portion of Scotland. Scotland is really setting a standard for many countries in the world with its desire to move towards net zero emissions as soon as possible, with Scottish Water playing a key part in that, with their commitment to carbon neutrality extending not only to how they generate and use power for their sites, but also how they operate their vehicles, with their publicly-stated aim to operate a fully emissions-free fleet of vehicles by 2040. Such is Scottish Water’s commitment to renewable energy, it actually has a commercial subsidiary named Scottish Water Horizons, an entity that works to invest in renewable technologies, with this current project being its th...

For many people, the desire to take on solar energy generation at their home is fueled - no pun intended - in large part by their desire to become more environmentally conscious in the way they use energy.  This element is also true of many who switch over to the increasingly popular trend of driving electric vehicles, so the question presents itself; could you combine the two options and use a solar battery option to charge your electric vehicle? From the research we have done, it is certainly possible to use your solar battery towards providing power for your electric vehicle, with a range of financial and environmental benefits on offer. These include not only the advantage of moving away from fossil fuels both in your home and on the road, but there may also be grants available for EV charger options. The beauty of being able to combine these two technologies is that it also puts you in a position of strength should fossil fuel supplies continue to diminish, which in turn will...

To answer this question simply, yes you can install solar panels on a flat roof. In fact, they can be a perfect location for your new solar panels to be installed. It may be slightly more expensive than the usual installation of solar panels on a sloped roof, as there will be an extra cost per panel for mounting. That said, the panels won’t be visible from street level, so from a visual angle you may prefer this.  Most importantly, you’ll still gain the full range of benefits that come from the generation of solar energy for your home. In many ways, solar panels on a flat roof can offer greater flexibility to the design than with a sloped rooftop solar installation.  It may even be that on some days you gain a little more in terms of energy generation from your solar panels throughout the day. How do solar panels work on a flat roof? After the installation of solar panels - whether on a flat roof or a sloped roof - the real work of generating clean and renewable energy for yo...

The question of financial savings is an increasingly common one for homeowners looking at solar energy as a way to improve the running of their household. When it comes to energy consumption, the average family home is going to be spending a lot on their annual bills, no matter which company you choose to supply your home.   So in terms of exact solar panel savings , it will depend on how much solar energy you generate and what percentage of grid energy you replace with your self-generated solar. . But in simple terms, if you install your solar panels alongside a solar battery - more on that later - then you can expect to save anywhere up to 50% of your annual energy bills . What are the benefits of solar panels? First, let’s take a look at the overall benefits of installing solar panels to your home. The most important benefit of solar panels is that of providing your home with self-generated renewable energy. The panels utilise the technology of PV cells to convert direct sunligh...